OCCURRENCE DATA WORKING GROUP

Coordinators: Edeline Gagnon (University of Guelph, Canada), Joe Miller (Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Denmark) & Jens Ringelberg (University of Edinburgh, UK & Wageningen University, the Netherlands)

The Occurrence Data Working Group aims to promote the use of legume occurrence data in scientific studies. On our recently updated webpage (www.legumedata.org/working-groups/occurrences/), we provide information and resources about the assembly and cleaning of occurrence data, as well as an up-to-date list of published studies with publicly available quality controlled legume occurrence datasets. We hope that this encourages other researchers to re-use these datasets, to avoid unnecessary repetition of work and promote collaboration. If your published dataset is not yet listed, please reach out to us.

Like every year, here we provide an overview of recent studies that generated novel legume occurrence datasets, as well as some more general legume biogeography studies:

In a publication based on her MSc thesis, Charlotte Hagelstam-Renshaw (Université de Montréal, Canada) and colleagues present a novel occurrence dataset of the entire Cercidoideae subfamily. They use this dataset, in combination with a newly dated molecular phylogeny, to assess phylogenetic biome conservatism across this pantropical subfamily, finding intriguing differences in biome evolution across clades, continents, and growth forms.

Advances in Legume Systematics 14 part 2, edited by Anne Bruneau (Université de Montréal, Canada), Luciano de Queiroz (Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil), and Jens Ringelberg, and with contributions from a large number of collaborators, has now been published. This special issue features a new tribal and clade-based classification and full generic synopsis of the entire subfamily, as well as distribution maps of all 163 Caesalpinioideae genera and species and genus richness maps of the subfamily, based on a dataset of over 548,000 occurrence points. Occurrence data of non-mimosoid Caesalpinioideae were contributed by Juliana Rando (Universidade Federal do Oeste da Bahia, Brazil), Guilherme Sousa (Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil), Haroldo de Lima (Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco (Universidad Nacional Amazónica de Madre de Dios, Peru), and Domingos Cardoso (Universidade Federal do Bahia & Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Moabe Fernandes (University of Exeter & Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK) led an international team to carefully quantify the taxonomic, spatial, and evolutionary knowledge of the entire legume family. Their work shows that almost 20% of all legume species do not have a single occurrence record in public databases, and approximately half of all species have fewer than ten occurrence records. Furthermore, there are very strong geographical biases in the availability of occurrence data (see their Figure 3). Clearly, filling these gaps should be a priority for legume biogeographers.

Many other exciting legume biogeography studies were published in 2024. For instance, Patricia Alves Casaes (Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil) and colleagues studied the diversification of Chamaecrista (Caesalpinioideae) species in rainforests and other biomes, and the role of their nitrogen-fixing bacterial symbionts in promoting these radiations. Ryan Folk (Mississippi State University, USA) et al. described in great detail the biogeography and evolution of Astragalus (Papilionoideae), the largest Angiosperm genus in the world, while Brian Du Preez (University of Cape Town, South Africa) presented a very nice overview of the biogeography of Indigofera (Papilionoideae), the third-largest legume genus. Vinicius Delgado da Rocha (Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Brazil) and his team analysed the multiple biome shifts between rainforests and savannas in Dimorphandra (Caesalpinioideae), and Wallace São-Mateus (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil) and colleagues studied the fascinating amphi-tropical distribution of Harpalyce (Papilionoideae). Finally, the Brazil Flora Group – Leguminosae, a large group of researchers working on Brazilian legumes, provided a very detailed overview of the diversity and distribution of legumes in this country, based on the fantastic work done for the Flora do Brasil 2020 project. Altogether, 2024 was a fantastic year for legume biogeography, and we are looking forward to 2025!

Finally, the Legume Occurrence Working Group needs your help! A project led by Jens Ringelberg, but with major input from Moabe Fernandes, Edeline Gagnon, and many other legume researchers, is aiming to assemble a quality controlled occurrence dataset for the entire legume family. A crucial part of this project consists of the careful checking of maps of species and genera by experts of particular groups. Several dozens of legume experts have already contributed to this, but there still are many genera that remain unchecked. Anyone who would like to help is very welcome to, regardless of their career stage (students are more than welcome to participate), and all contributors are invited to be a co-author on the resulting publication(s). If you are interested in helping, or would like to learn more about the project, please just send an email to Jens. Thank you!

References

Brazil Flora Group – Leguminosae. 2024. Assembling the Brazilian flora: overview of Leguminosae diversity. Brazilian Journal of Botany. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-024-01034-7

Bruneau A, de Queiroz LP, Ringelberg JJ, Borges LM, Bortoluzzi RL da C, Brown GK, Cardoso DBOS, Clark RP, Conceição A de S, Cota MMT, Demeulenaere E, de Stefano RD, Ebinger JE, Ferm J, Fonseca-Cortés A, Gagnon E, Grether R, Guerra E, Haston E, Herendeen PS, Hernández HM, Hopkins HCF, Huamantupa-Chuquimaco I, Hughes CE, Ickert-Bond SM, Iganci J, Koenen EJM, Lewis GP, de Lima HC, de Lima AG, Luckow M, Marazzi B, Maslin BR, Morales M, Morim MP, Murphy DJ, O’Donnell SA, Oliveira FG, Oliveira AC da S, Rando JG, Ribeiro PG, Ribeiro CL, Santos F da S, Seigler DS, da Silva GS, Simon MF, Soares MVB, Terra V. 2024. Advances in Legume Systematics 14. Classification of Caesalpinioideae. Part 2: Higher-level classification. PhytoKeys 240: 1–552. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.240.101716

Casaes PA, Ferreira Dos Santos JM, Silva VC, Rhem MFK, Teixeira Cota MM, De Faria SM, Rando JG, James EK, Gross E. 2024. The radiation of nodulated Chamaecrista species from the rainforest into more diverse habitats has been accompanied by a reduction in growth form and a shift from fixation threads to symbiosomes. Journal of Experimental Botany 75: 3643–3662. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae134

Du Preez B, Schrire BD, Dreyer LL, Stirton CH, Chimphango SBM, Muasya AM (2025) Global biogeographic patterns of the genus Indigofera (Fabaceae: Indigofereae). Brazilian Journal of Botany 48: 19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-024-01045-4

Fernandes MF, Lewis GP, Vatanparast M, Pezzini FF, Brown MJM, de Queiroz LP, Cardoso D, Pennington RT. 2025. Knowledge gaps in legume diversity and distribution and prospects for future research. Brazilian Journal of Botany 48: 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-024-01051-6

Folk RA, Charboneau JLM, Belitz M, Singh T, Kates HR, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Guralnick RP, Siniscalchi CM. 2024. Anatomy of a mega-radiation: Biogeography and niche evolution in Astragalus. American Journal of Botany 111: 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajb2.16299

Hagelstam-Renshaw C, Ringelberg JJ, Sinou C, Cardinal-McTeague W, Bruneau A. 2025. Biome evolution in subfamily Cercidoideae (Leguminosae): a tropical arborescent clade with a relictual depauperate temperate lineage. Brazilian Journal of Botany 48: 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40415-024-01058-z

Rocha VD da, Dal’Sasso TC da S, Williams CCV, Simon MF, Bueno ML, Oliveira LO de. 2024. From forest to savanna and back to forest: Evolutionary history of the genus Dimorphandra (Fabaceae). Journal of Plant Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-024-01523-6

São-Mateus WMB, Fernandes MF, Queiroz LP de, Meireles JE, Jardim JG, Delgado-Salinas A, Dorado Ó, Lima HC de, Rodríguez RR, González Gutiérrez PA, Lewis GP, Wojciechowski MF, Cardoso D. 2024. Molecular phylogeny and divergence time of Harpalyce (Leguminosae, Papilionoideae), a lineage with amphitropical diversification in seasonally dry forests and savannas. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 194: 108031. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2024.108031