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Gobin J, Szumski CM, Roth JD, Murray DL. Patterns of dietary niche breadth and overlap are maintained for two closely related carnivores across broad geographic scales. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.1059155] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Ecological studies investigating niche breadth and overlap often have limited spatial and temporal scale, preventing generalizations across varying environments and communities. For example, it is not clear whether species having restricted diets maintain such patterns relative to closely related species and across their geographic range of co-occurrence. We used stable isotope analysis of hair and fur samples collected from four regions of sympatry for Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) and bobcat (Lynx rufus) spanning southern Canada and the northern United States, to test the prediction that the more generalist species (bobcat) exhibits a wider dietary niche than the more specialist species (Canada lynx) and that this pattern is consistent across different regions. We further predicted that Canada lynx diet would consistently exhibit greater overlap with that of bobcat compared to overlap of bobcat diet with Canada lynx. We found that Canada lynx had a narrower dietary niche than bobcat, with a high probability of overlap (85–95%) with bobcat, whereas the bobcat dietary niche had up to a 50% probability of overlap with Canada lynx. These patterns of dietary niche breadth and overlap were consistent across geographic regions despite some regional variation in diet breadth and position, for both species. Such consistent patterns could reflect a lack of plasticity in species dietary niches. Given the increasingly recognized importance of understanding dietary niche breadth and overlap across large spatial scales, further research is needed to investigate the mechanisms by which broad-scale patterns are maintained across species and systems.
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Pelegrin JS, Cantalapiedra JL, Gamboa S, Menéndez I, Hernández Fernández M. Phylogenetic biome conservatism as a key concept for an integrative understanding of evolutionary history: Galliformes and Falconiformes as study cases. Zool J Linn Soc 2022. [DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac080] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
Abstract
Biomes are climatically and biotically distinctive macroecological units that formed over geological time scales. Their features consolidate them as ‘evolutionary scenarios’, with their own diversification dynamics. Under the concept of phylogenetic niche conservatism, we assessed, for the first time, the evolution of biome occupation in birds. We aimed to analyse patterns of adaptation to different climatic regimes and the determinant factors for colonization of emerging biomes by clades from different ancestral biomes. In this work, we reconstructed the biome occupation history of two clades of birds (Galliformes and Falconiformes) under an integrative perspective through a comprehensive review of ecological, phylogenetic, palaeontological and biogeographical evidence. Our findings for both groups are consistent with a scenario of phylogenetic biome conservatism and highlight the importance of changes in climate during the Miocene in the adaptation and evolution of climatic niches. In particular, our results indicate high biome conservatism associated with biomes situated in some of the extremes of the global climate gradient (evergreen tropical rainforest, steppe and tundra) for both bird taxa. Finally, the historical dynamics of tropical seasonal biomes, such as tropical deciduous woodlands and savannas, appear to have played a preponderant role during the diversification processes of these bird lineages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan S Pelegrin
- Grupo de Investigación en Ecología y Conservación de la Biodiversidad (EcoBio), Área de Biología y Programa de Maestría en Educación Ambiental y Desarrollo Sostenible, Facultades de Ciencias Básicas y Educación, Universidad Santiago de Cali , Colombia
- Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Exactas, Universidad del Valle , Colombia
| | - Juan L Cantalapiedra
- GloCEE – Global Change Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá , 28805, Alcalá de Henares (Madrid ), Spain
| | - Sara Gamboa
- Departamento de Estratigrafía, Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
- Departamento de Cambio Medio Ambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC) , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
| | - Iris Menéndez
- Departamento de Estratigrafía, Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
- Departamento de Cambio Medio Ambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC) , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
| | - Manuel Hernández Fernández
- Departamento de Estratigrafía, Geodinámica y Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
- Departamento de Cambio Medio Ambiental, Instituto de Geociencias (UCM, CSIC) , C/ José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid , Spain
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