The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation recognizes the exceptional research of our students and early career scientists with awards for outstanding presentations at the ATBC’s annual meeting. The Luis F. Bacardi Award for Advances in Tropical Conservation is awarded to the individual receiving their Ph.D. no more than 5 years before the meeting date who gives the best oral presentation. This award was established in 2005 with an endowment from the Lubee Bat Conservancy, an international non-profit organization based in Gainesville, Florida, that was founded in 1989 by the late Luis F. Bacardi and is dedicated to protecting biological diversity through the conservation of fruit- and nectar-feeding bats. The Alwyn Gentry Presentation Awards are in recognition of the outstanding oral and poster presentations by students at the ATBC’s annual meeting. Alwyn H. Gentry’s legacy to tropical biology was not limited to the study of the diversity and conservation of tropical plants—he was a caring and supportive mentor to students from all over the Americas. These awards are therefore in remembrance and recognition of the contributions of this singular scientist, colleague, mentor, and friend.
The New Phytologist Foundation, an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of plant science, is proud to support student researchers by awarding the New Phytologist Poster Prize in Plant Biology at the ATBC Annual Meeting.
On behalf of the ATBC we would like to thank the early-career scientists that presented their work at the 2023 ATBC Meeting in Coimbatore, extend our gratitude to the many meeting delegates who served as judges, and congratulate the following recipients for their outstanding presentations.
Sabrina Russo and Daisy Dent
Gentry and Bacardi Award Co-Chairs
2023 Luis F. Bacardi Award for Advances in Tropical Conservation
Nicolas Texier
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Using threatened tree species and Key Biodiversity Areas to support achieving the 30×30 objective in Gabon
Nicolas Texier, Archange Boupoya, Ehoarn Bidault, Jacques Bie Mba, Christ Bikoukou, Gilles Dauby, Godefroy De Bruyne, Luane Guimaron, Olivier Hardy, Davy Ikabanga, Jan Lukas Klein, Olivier Lachenaud, Michelle Lee, Pete Lowry, Steeve Ngama, Alfred Ngomanda, Christopher Orbell, Anne-Hélène Paradis, and Stévart Tariq
Gabon, a predominantly forested country (88%) with a low rate of deforestation and strong political engagement to ensure sustainable development, was the African leader during negotiations on the Kunming-Montreal agreement, and in particular for the CBD’s 30×30 objective (protection of 30% of the world’s terrestrial and marine habitats by 2030). In support of this effort, the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) and its local and international partners are developing innovative processes and tools to facilitate Gabon’s in situ conservation policies and actions, with a focus on the country’s 1,486 tree species, which represent 28% of the flora. The first phase involved identifying and assessing the 300 threatened tree species and defining threatened forest habitats using the IUCN Red List methodology, which was then used to develop multi-species conservation action plans for the 103 Critically endangered (CR) and Endangered (EN) tree species. MBG has also assisted the Gabonese government and industrial partners in identifying important areas for biodiversity conservation using the High Conservation Value (HCV) framework and the International Finance Corporation’s Performance Standard 6 (PS6), which are employed in Gabon for forestry, agro-industrial, mining, and hydro-electric dam projects. To facilitate experts in assessing the risk of extinction of species, MBG has developed a web application, ConApp, which can be used to identify potentially threatened taxa at a site and provide specific data on threatened tree species. A complementary website (Threatened Plants of Gabon) has been developed to disseminate knowledge on Gabon’s threatened plant species and habitats. A network of experts on Gabon’s flora and fauna was formed in 2021 to assess the country’s 45 potential Key Biodiversity Areas. These initiatives are designed to inform the establishment of new protected areas to meet Gabon’s 30×30 objective and to manage the impacts of industrial activities while taking into account the conservation of threatened species and habitats. These efforts reflect Gabon’s leadership in biodiversity conservation in tropical Africa and MBG’s commitment to supporting the country’s conservation policies and actions through innovative tools and collaborative partnerships.
2023 Alwyn Gentry Award for Best Oral Presentation
Aleena Xavier
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal
Breaking barriers: Investigating geographic and genomic admixtures within the Spiked ginger-lilly
Aleena Xavier, Vinita Gowda, and Preeti
Species with a wide distributional range often show a high level of genetic and phenotypic variation due to their adaptation to a broader geographical or climatic regime. These species offer us an opportunity to investigate the genetic and physical barriers to gene flow across a spatial scale, thus allowing us to understand the microevolutionary processes that can result in speciation events. Our study focuses on a widespread, high-elevational, perennial rhizomatous understory herb, Hedychium spicatum, distributed from India to Southern China and Northern Thailand. This species is notorious for its morphological variation and is part of a species complex – the Spicatum complex, which currently consists of at least six taxonomically distinct species and two putative hybrid forms. H. spicatum is found in sympatry with multiple other congeneric taxa across its distributional range and shows interfertility with them. This leads us to hypothesise that the geographically separated morphological forms in this species are a result of introgression from the sympatric taxa. We aim to investigate the barriers to gene flow within this heterogenous species across a geographical range or the lack thereof. To check this, we sampled 12 populations of H. spicatum along with sympatric species across its distributional range. We used a combination of SNPs extracted via dd-RAD sequencing and SSR markers to genotype the individuals. We inferred the genetic structure of H. spicatum individuals from different populations using a combination of model-based and model-free clustering approaches. To understand the genetic isolation mechanism, we checked for different genetic isolation models (Isolation by distance and Isolation by environment) and different migration models. Our results suggest migrations between different populations, and we also found multiple evidence evidences of genetic admixtures between the H. spicatum and the sympatric taxa. Even though we found support for isolation by distance model (r=0.23, P<0.01), most of the population isolation mechanism seems to be localised. The putative hybrids forms from different geographic locations showed significant gene flow from both H. spicatum and the sympatric congeneric taxa. Overall, our study shows genetic migrations between species and geographic regions in this tropical understory herb.
2023 Alwyn Gentry Award for Best Poster Presentation
Manish R
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram
Variation in plant-visitor networks across landscapes of the southern Western Ghats
Manish R, Sachin Bhaskar, Abhinay Arra, Gifty Alin Jacob, Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter, Ricarda Scheiner, and Hema Somanathan
The Western Ghats is one of the world’s hottest biodiversity hotspots, and the southern end, encompassing the Agastyamala Biosphere Reserve, is home to many endemic species. Developmental activities in the regions surrounding the biosphere reserve in the past few decades have led to significant land use conversions. The landscapes adjacent to these forests are abundant with rubber plantations and pockets of acacia and coconut plantations. Thiruvananthapuram city, being the capital of the state, is subject to an increasing degree of urbanization, which is interspersed with green spaces.
Objectives. To study the variation in the network parameters of plant-flower visitor networks among the three¬ landscapes (forest, plantation, and urban) in the southern Western Ghats.
Methods. Twelve circular plots of 1 km radius were selected across Thiruvananthapuram district, belonging to 3 landscape types for the study. Twelve transects, 100 m in length, were laid, at least 100 m away from each other, in each plot based on the presence of flowering plants. The abundance of flower visitors in the transects was observed every 5 m for 2 minutes. The flower abundances in each transect were recorded, and insect visitors were sampled for later identification. The networks for the three landscapes will be constructed, and comparisons will be made among the landscapes.
Results. The data collection and analyses are in progress, and from observations of the landscapes in the dry season, we see a distinction in the plant communities of the three landscapes. The forests consist of both deciduous and evergreen tree species. The plantations are dominated by a single economically productive species, and the understory consists of herbaceous plants with low plant species richness. The urban areas are abundant in garden plants, ornamentals, and avenue trees. We have observed various groups of flower visitors, including bees, predatory and parasitoid wasps, ants, flies, butterflies and moths, beetles, thrips, bugs, birds, and mammals visiting flowers belonging to various plants.
Implications. The presence of urban green spaces and unused green areas in the agricultural regions produce a structurally complex landscape in this region. These might serve as refugia for insect pollinators, influencing the visitor rates observed in these landscapes. Due to their unique plant assembly, the forests might have more specialist pollinator species than the other landscapes.
2023 New Phytologist Prize in Plant Biology Best Oral Presentation
Abhishek Gopal
Center for Cell and Molecular Biology (CCMB)
Range-restricted old and young lineages show the southern Western Ghats to be both a museum and a cradle of diversity
Abhishek Gopal, Bharti DK, Navendu Page, Kyle G Dexter, Ramanathan Krishnamani, Ajith Kumar, and Jahnavi Joshi
Introduction. The Western Ghats (WG) mountain chain is a global biodiversity hotspot with high diversity and endemicity of woody plants. The latitudinal breadth of the WG offers an opportunity to determine the evolutionary drivers of latitudinal diversity patterns. We examined the spatial patterns of evolutionary diversity using complementary phylogenetic diversity and endemism measures. To examine if different regions of the WG serve as a museum or cradle of evolutionary diversity, we examined the distribution of 470 species based on distribution modelling and occurrence locations across the entire region.
Objectives. 1. Does the latitudinal gradient in past geo-climatic instability and current seasonality affect the evolutionary diversity of woody plants, resulting in higher persistence and recent divergence of lineages at lower latitudes?
2. Do woody plant lineages show a nested distribution over water availability and seasonality gradients at multiple evolutionary depths?
3. What are the environmental correlates of evolutionary diversity?
4. Additionally, we examined the contribution of different lineages to the spatial patterns of phylogenetic diversity and if their contribution varies at different evolutionary depths.
Methods. Species occurrence locations collated from published sources were used to create species distribution maps using Maxent. The distribution maps of the species were stacked to get a richness map of the WG at 10 × 10 km resolution. These were combined with the a comprehensive global seed phylogeny to which the woody plants from the WG were added to.
Results. We find that the southern WG are a hotbed of evolutionary diversity, facilitating both persistence and recent divergence of lineages. This latitudinal asymmetry in lineage diversity is likely to be driven by phylogenetic niche conservatism for moist and aseasonal sites, which in congruence with higher geo-climatic stability and higher topographic heterogeneity in the lower latitudes, limits extinction and allows for higher diversification rates. Across all evolutionary depths, some lineages do manage to occur in the more seasonal and dry northern WG, but other lineages are restricted to areas of the WG with low seasonality and higher water availability, resulting in the nested distribution pattern with respect to latitude that persists at all evolutionary depths. Current environmental variables in terms of drought seasonality, precipitation and topographic heterogeneity shape the evolutionary diversity.
Implications/Conclusions. Our results highlight the global value of the WG, demonstrating, in particular, the importance of protecting the southern WG – an engine of plant diversification and persistence.
2023 New Phytologist Prize in Plant Biology Best Poster Presentation
Megha Ojha
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune
Impact of non-native invasive plant species on Asian tropical savannas
Megha Ojha, Deepak Barua, Ashish Nerlekar, Mandar Datar, and Bhushan Shigwan
Tropical savannahs are one of the major terrestrial biomes of the Earth. These systems in Asia are under immense threat of degradation due to lack of conservation strategies. Non-native invasive plant species are known to be a leading cause of biodiversity loss. Invasive species can cause reduction in species and functional diversity which can cause alteration in structure and function of these unique systems. Understanding the mechanism, direction and magnitude of impact of invasive species on taxonomic and functional diversity, will help us better manage and restore these systems.
Arid savannah and Mesic savannah, are the two savannah types found on the eastern edge of Western Ghats. These savannahs differ predominately in Mean Annual precipitation. Water limitation in the arid savannah acts as a strong environmental filter against the establishment of woody species. Considering this inherent difference, we would expect arid savannah to be devoid of woody invasive species. Given this, one would expect higher impact of invasion in mesic savannah than arid savannah.
To assess the differential impact of invasive species in mesic and arid savannah, we conducted a field study in these two savannahs. We identified, three replicate sites in each savannah type and laid five transects across an invasion gradient in each of these sites. A total of 80, 10mx10m plots were laid across the invasion gradient in these savannah systems. We identified the species and estimated their cover in each plot and used this data to measure various diversity indices. Our result shows a significant negative impact on species richness at moderate to high level of invasion. As hypothesized, Invasive species have higher impact on taxonomic diversity of native plant species in mesic as compared to arid savannahs. The invaded communities are more taxonomically heterogeneous in composition compared to uninvaded communities (β diversity) in both arid and mesic savannahs.
As per our hypothesis, the negative impact of invasion is more in mesic savannah as compared to arid savannah. Our study reinforces the need to protect the Asian tropical savannahs with special focus on the mesic savannah system. Our study is the first study from the Indian subcontinent which has compared the impact of invasion on these two distinct savannah types. Building on these results, in future we will assess the impact of invasive species on functional diversity of these fragile systems using tools and concepts from the emerging field of trait based ecology.