Editor: Richard Field Abstract Aim: Biomes can diverge substantially in plant functional traits and disturbance regimens among regions. Given that Neotropical and Afrotropical regions have contrasting histories of the megafauna (because of the Holocene megafaunal extinction in the Neotropics), we hypothesize that they should harbour plants with different traits in relationship to herbivory and fire, especially in savannas. We predicted that herbivory resistance traits should be more prominent in Afrotropical savanna plants and fire resistance in Neotropical savanna plants. Location: Tropics. Time period: Not applicable. Major taxa studied: Angiosperms (woody). Methods: We compiled data for five key plant functional traits (wood density, specific leaf area, maximum tree height, spinescence and proportion of geoxyles) for forest and savanna woody species from the two distant regions (Afrotropics and Neotropics). We related these data to climate, soil and fire variables and tested predictions for megafauna selection. Results: Spines and high wood density were more common among Afrotropical than Neotropical savanna species and species from the two forests. Moreover, the Neotropical savanna region contained more geoxyles than the Afrotropical savanna region. Finally, Afrotropical species were taller than Neotropical species. These differences were consistent with our predictions for trait selection by the megafauna, and these patterns did not change when considering climate, soil and fire regimens in the models. Main conclusions: Our results highlight the great potential of these traits for summarizing disturbance strategy axes in tropical woody species and suggest that global variation in plant traits is unlikely to be understood fully without consideration of historical factors, especially the direct and indirect impacts of megafauna.

中文翻译：

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巨型动物生物地理学解释了热带植物功能性状的变异性

编辑：Richard Field 摘要目的：生物群落可以在植物功能性状和区域间干扰方案方面存在显着差异。鉴于新热带和非洲热带地区的巨型动物历史截然不同（因为新热带地区的全新世巨型动物灭绝），我们假设它们应该拥有与食草和火有关的不同特征的植物，尤其是在热带稀树草原。我们预测食草抗性特征在亚热带稀树草原植物中更突出，在新热带稀树草原植物中抗火性更突出。地点：热带地区。时间段：不适用。研究的主要分类群：被子植物（木本植物）。方法：我们编制了五个关键植物功能性状的数据（木材密度、比叶面积、最大树高、来自两个遥远地区（Afrotropics 和 Neotropics）的森林和稀树草原木本物种的刺状和 geoxyles 比例）。我们将这些数据与气候、土壤和火灾变量相关联，并测试了对巨型动物选择的预测。结果：与新热带稀树草原物种和来自这两个森林的物种相比，非洲热带稀树草原物种中的刺和高木材密度更常见。此外，新热带稀树草原地区比非洲热带稀树草原地区含有更多的地氧。最后，非洲热带物种比新热带物种高。这些差异与我们对巨型动物性状选择的预测一致，并且在考虑模型中的气候、土壤和火灾方案时，这些模式没有改变。主要结论：