[Taxacom] Long-distance oceanic dispersal (rafting) of Nothofagus species

[Stephen Thorpe]

"Could certain insects, mosses, or other organisms have hitched a ride on such a Nothofagus raft?"

Impossible to rule out just about anything that doesn't constantly require running freshwater. If it happened during summer, there could be a desiccating effect, but at other times the amount of freshwater dampness could remain at acceptable levels.

The problem though, as I see it, is that these dispersion events are entirely random and unpredictable, so it is hard to base much in the way of science on it.

Stephen

--------------------------------------------
On Sun, 3/6/18, Kenneth Kinman <kinman at hotmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: [Taxacom] Long-distance oceanic dispersal (rafting) of Nothofagus	species
 To: "Kenneth Kinman" <kinman at hotmail.com>
 Cc: "taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Sunday, 3 June, 2018, 1:51 PM
 
 Hi all,
      
 The recent thread got me thinking about a debate that some
 of us were having on taxacom almost 12 years ago.  Namely
 whether long-distance oceanic dispersal (by rafting) was a
 significant factor in the geographic distribution of some
 species of Nothofagus (sensu lato).
      
  My hypothesis was that large rafts of dislodged Nothofagus
 trees (due to tsunami or other massive flooding event) could
 have held some of their fruit above the ocean surface and
 rafted from Tasmania to New Zealand, where one or more  new
 species could evolve (due to founder effect).  This would
 be a relatively short rafting event compared to the much
 longer driftwood oceanic rafting that happened from South
 America to Tasmania: Barber, 1959, in the journal Nature;
 "Transport of Driftwood from South America to
 Tasmania". Is there other evidence that such dispersal
 of Nothofagus could have happened? Could certain insects,
 mosses, or other organisms have hitched a ride on such a
 Nothofagus raft?
                  
                  --------------Ken Kinman
 http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/pipermail/taxacom/2006-December/108385.html
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