Variation among plant species in the number of associated herbivore and pathogen species is predicted to fit a species-area relationship in which the area or biomass embodied by a plant species is a function of individual size and geographic range size. This hypothesis is tested using published estimates of geographic range, individual size, and species richness of fungal-pathogens for 490 plant species occurring in the United States and controlling for sampling intensity and phylogenetic effects. The number of pathogens found on a plant species increases with the metrics of plant species' area and/or habitat diversity and their effects are similar between gymnosperm and angiosperm lineages. The strength of this pattern across a diverse set of plant lineages suggests that accumulation and persistence of pathogen species on plant species are governed by the same processes among temperate plants.
Tip_species_DATA
This file contains data on body size (maximum individual height), sampling intensity (number of citations returned in WOS search of latin binomial), geographic range size (estimated using state and county reports), and number of recorded fungal pathogen species for each plant species used in the analysis. The first six columns give taxonomic data for each species including order, family, genus, and species. “WOScite” and “CI” are the number of citations and log (number of citations), respectively. “HtMeters” and “Loght1” are the untransformed and log-transformed values for plant species height in meters. “ANG-GYM” column describes which clade (angiosperm or gymnosperm) a plant species belongs to. Wither plant species are native to North America (native) and plant species functional group designations (Functional_group) are listed next. Columns N through T contain estimates of plant species geographic range size (km2) and log10-transformed values. State-based estimates are noted with “ST” in column title and county-based estimates with “Co”. Log-transformed values for county-based range estimates excluding Alaska are labeled “logSA48” and estimates including Alaska are labeled “logSA49”. “PSR” refers to pathogen species richness, i.e. the number of reported fungal pathogen species for each plant species. The log (PSR+1) values are listed in the column labeled “LogPSRp1”.
fulltree
This is a nexus file giving the phylogenetic relationships and time-based branch lengths among taxa used in this study
