Crayn, Darren M. (2018) Plant systematics and biogeography in the Australasian tropics. Australian Systematic Botany, 31 (5-6). i-iii.

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Abstract

[Extract] It has been recognised for centuries that the majority of species are found in the tropics. The reasons are the subject of much debate, especially regarding the roles of temperature and time (Brown 2014), but whatever the causes, it is undeniable that the tropics teem with species known and unknown.

Of all tropical areas, the Neotropics stands out for its exceptional taxon richness and rates of diversification (Antonelli et al. 2015). Whereas the Australasian tropics cannot match the species numbers of the Neotropics except perhaps for trees (Slik et al. 2015), it does boast the world's largest tropical island (New Guinea), among the largest and most intact tropical savannahs (Woinarski et al. 2007), the greatest concentration of basal angiosperm lineages (Metcalfe and Ford 2009) and the most species-rich mangroves (Daru et al. 2013). These landscapes are not just rich in species, but also exhibit high levels of phylogenetic diversity and phylogenetic endemism (Thornhill et al. 2016).

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