Wu, GuilinChen, DexiangZhou, ZhangYe, QingBaselga Fraga, AndrésLiu, HuiWen, YinNong, Shouqian2025-05-082025-05-082023Wu, G.-L., Chen, D.-X., Zhou, Z., Ye, Q., Baselga, A., Liu, H., Wen, Y., & Nong, S.-Q. (2023). Climatic niche divergence explains angiosperm diversification across clades in China. Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 61(4), 698-708. https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.129321759-6831https://hdl.handle.net/10347/41289This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Wu, G.-L., Chen, D.-X., Zhou, Z., Ye, Q., Baselga, A., Liu, H., Wen, Y., & Nong, S.-Q. (2023). Climatic niche divergence explains angiosperm diversification across clades in China. Journal of Systematics and Evolution, 61(4), 698-708, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12932. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.Diversification rates are critically important for understanding patterns of species richness among clades. However, the effects of climatic niche width on plant diversification rates remain to be elucidated. Based on the phylogenetic, climatic, and distributional information of angiosperms in China, a total of 26 906 species from 182 families were included in this study. We aimed to test relationships between diversification rate and climatic niche width and climatic niche width related variables (including climatic niche divergence, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate) using phylogenetic methods. We found that climatic niche divergence had the largest unique contribution to the diversification rate, while the unique effects of climatic niche width, climatic niche position, geographic extent, and climatic niche evolutionary rate on the diversification rate were negligible. We also observed that the relationship between diversification rate and climatic niche divergence was significantly stronger than the null assumption (artefactual relationship between diversification and clade-level climatic niche width by sampling more species). Our study supports the hypothesis that wider family climatic niche widths explain faster diversification rates through a higher climatic niche divergence rather than through higher geographic extent, higher climatic niche evolutionary rate, or separated climatic niche position. Hence, the results provide a potential explanation for large-scale diversity patterns within families of plants.engAngiospermsDiversification rateClimatic niche widthCimatic niche divergenceGeographic extentClimatic niche position2417 Biología vegetal (botánica)journal article10.1111/jse.12932open access