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Natural History, Sept, 2006 by Kristin N. Mementowski

Warmth and water do more than just make plants grow quickly. In the tropics, it seems, evolution itself proceeds at a faster pace than it does in temperate zones. Shane Wright, a biogeographer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and two colleagues studied forty-five pairs of closely related plant species. One member of each pair is from the tropics; the other hails from a temperate clime. To determine the rate of evolutionary change, the team compared a section of genetic code in the members of each pair with the corresponding section in a third species, the pair's closest relative. The tropical plants, Wright and his colleagues discovered, have evolved twice as fast, on average, as their temperate cousins.

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Compared to cool, dry ecosystems, warm, wet ecosystems grow enormous numbers of organisms, which tend to have high metabolic rates. Wright thinks the higher productivity and faster metabolisms raise the likelihood of genetic mutations. More frequent mutations should lead to more rapid evolutionary change. Faster evolution, in turn, may cause species to proliferate. If so, Wright's discovery may explain the tremendous diversity of the tropical forests. (PNA5 103:7718-22, 2006)

Many like it hot

Natural History, Sept, 2006 by Kristin N. Mementowski

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