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Popescu SM, Tigae C, Dobrițescu A, Ștefănescu DM. Exploring the Climatic Niche Evolution of the Genus Falco (Aves: Falconidae) in Europe. Biology (Basel) 2024; 13:113. [PMID: 38392331 PMCID: PMC10886973 DOI: 10.3390/biology13020113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2024] [Revised: 02/03/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024]
Abstract
By integrating species distribution modeling techniques, phylogenetic comparative methods, and climatic data, we analyzed how European falcon climatic niches have changed over evolutionary time in order to understand their tempo and mode of evolution and gain phylogenetic insights related to the ecological context of falcon evolution. For this purpose, we tested the relative contributions of niche conservatism, convergent evolution, and divergent evolution in the evolutionary history of this group of species in Europe. The occupation of climatic niche spaces by falcon species in Europe was not similar, considering that their climatic niche evolution was characterized by heterotachy, especially after ca. 4 Mya. Our results indicate that convergent evolution and niche divergence played an important role in the evolutionary history of these species, with no significant evidence of closely related species retaining their fundamental niche over time (phylogenetic niche conservatism). In most analyses, less closely related falcon species occupied similar climatic environments. We found that speciation in the European genus Falco was influenced by climatic niche differentiation, more prevalent in the last 4 million years, with the main climatic niche shifts occurring between closely related falcon species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simona Mariana Popescu
- Department of Biology and Environmental Engineering, University of Craiova, A.I. Cuza, 13, 200585 Craiova, Romania
| | - Cristian Tigae
- Faculty of Science, University of Craiova, A.I. Cuza, 13, 200585 Craiova, Romania
| | - Aurelian Dobrițescu
- Faculty of Science, University of Craiova, A.I. Cuza, 13, 200585 Craiova, Romania
| | - Dragoș Mihail Ștefănescu
- Department of Biology and Environmental Engineering, University of Craiova, A.I. Cuza, 13, 200585 Craiova, Romania
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Banerjee AK, Tan F, Feng H, Liang X, Wang J, Yin M, Peng H, Lin Y, Zhang N, Huang Y. Invasive alien plants are phylogenetically distinct from other alien species across spatial and taxonomic scales in China. Front Plant Sci 2023; 14:1075344. [PMID: 37745989 PMCID: PMC10513447 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1075344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 08/23/2023] [Indexed: 09/26/2023]
Abstract
Introduction Phylogenetic relatedness is one of the important factors in the community assembly process. Here, we aimed to understand the large-scale phylogenetic relationship between alien plant species at different stages of the invasion process and how these relationships change in response to the environmental filtering process at multiple spatial scales and different phylogenetic extents. Methods We identified the alien species in three invasion stages, namely invasive, naturalized, and introduced, in China. The occurrence records of the species were used to quantify two abundance-based phylogenetic metrics [the net relatedness index (NRI) and the nearest taxon index (NTI)] from a highly resolved phylogenetic tree. The metrics were compared between the three categories of alien species. Generalized linear models were used to test the effect of climate on the phylogenetic pattern. All analyses were conducted at four spatial scales and for three major angiosperm families. Results We observed significantly higher NRI and NTI values at finer spatial scales, indicating the formation of more clustered assemblages of phylogenetically closely related species in response to the environmental filtering process. Positive NTI values for the invasive and naturalized aliens suggested that the presence of a close relative in the community may help the successful naturalization and invasion of the introduced alien species. In the two-dimensional phylogenetic space, the invasive species communities significantly differed from the naturalized and introduced species, indicating that established alien species need to be phylogenetically different to become invasive. Positive phylogenetic measures for the invasive aliens across the spatial scales suggested that the presence of invasive aliens could facilitate the establishment of other invasive species. Phylogenetic relatedness was more influenced by temperature than precipitation, especially at a finer spatial scale. With decreased temperature, the invasive species showed a more clustered assemblage, indicating conservatism of their phylogenetic niche. The phylogenetic pattern was different at the family level, although there was a consistent tendency across families to form more clustered assemblages. Discussion Overall, our study showed that the community assemblage became more clustered with the progression of the invasion process. The phylogenetic measures varied at spatial and taxonomic scales, thereby highlighting the importance of assessing phylogenetic patterns at different gradients of the community assembly process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Achyut Kumar Banerjee
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Fengxiao Tan
- College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Hui Feng
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xinru Liang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Jiakai Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Minghui Yin
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Hao Peng
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Yuting Lin
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Nannan Zhang
- Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization and Ecological Restoration Biodiversity Conservation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Yelin Huang
- State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Resources, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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Xu GQ, Kandlikar GS, Vaz MC. Evolutionary lability underlies drought adaptation of Australian shrubs along aridity gradients. Front Plant Sci 2022; 13:949531. [PMID: 36275606 PMCID: PMC9585297 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.949531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2022] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Leaf drought tolerance traits influence plant survival in water deficit conditions, and these traits are influenced by both the plant's evolutionary history and the environment in which the plant is currently growing. However, due to the substantial phenotypic plasticity in leaf traits, we still do not know to what degree variation in leaf traits is governed by species' phylogenetic history or by their environment. To explore this question, we re-examined a drought tolerance dataset from 37 native Australian shrub species with varying climate origins growing in a common garden located in Melbourne, Australia. We previously measured seven leaf morphophysiological traits, and here, we estimated how phylogenetically conserved these traits are. We quantified phylogeny and the strength of correlation between the morphological traits and physiological traits before and after accounting for shared phylogenetic history. We also evaluated the relationship between species' leaf traits and the climate of their native ranges. We present three main findings: (a) most leaf drought tolerance traits had weak phylogenetic signals, which is consistent with the convergent evolution of these traits. (b) There is weak but consistent coordination between distinct leaf drought tolerance traits, which can be masked due to species' phylogenetic histories. (c) Leaf drought tolerance traits show strong correlations with the climate of species' origins, and this relationship is only weakly impacted by phylogenetic signals. Therefore, the role of phylogeny on the coordination among leaf functional traits and their links to climate were limited. A better understanding of trait-environment relationships might be more pivotal than understanding the evolution of these traits for improving the predictions of species' response to climate change-type drought, especially for shrub species that span substantial aridity gradients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gui-Qing Xu
- State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China
| | - Gaurav S. Kandlikar
- Division of Biological Sciences and Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, United States
| | - Marcel C. Vaz
- Wilkes University, Institute for Environmental Science and Sustainability, Wilkes-Barre, PA, United States
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Gheyret G, Guo Y, Fang J, Tang Z. Latitudinal and elevational patterns of phylogenetic structure in forest communities in China's mountains. Sci China Life Sci 2020; 63:1895-1904. [PMID: 32382981 DOI: 10.1007/s11427-019-1663-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2020] [Accepted: 03/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The phylogenetic structure incorporates both ecological and evolutionary processes to explain assembly of a local community. The "phylogenetic niche conservatism" (PNC) hypothesis suggests that distributions of species along environmental gradients reflect both ancestral traits and ecological fitness of individual species The temperature is generally regarded to change in similar ways along both latitudinal and elevational gradients but with different historical contingence. Therefore, comparing the latitudinal and elevational patterns of phylogenetic structure of communities is of help to depict the effects of ecological and evolutionary processes in shaping the community assembly. In this study, we explored the latitudinal, elevational and climatic patterns of phylogenetic structure of 569 angiosperm tree communities from 38 mountains across China. We found a larger mean abundance-weighted net relatedness index (NRI) than the presence/absence-based NRI; and the NRI decreased when the species pool downscaled from the full pool to county-level pool. The mean family age and phylogenetic species evenness decreased with latitude, and increased with temperature of the coldest month and precipitation; whilst NRI increased with latitude, and decreased with mean temperature of the coldest month. In most mountains, NRI, mean family age and phylogenetic species evenness showed non-significant trends along the elevational gradient. Our results support the main predictions of PNC for the latitudinal gradient, i.e., species tend to be more phylogenetically related to each other and clades are younger in temperate environments, compared to those in tropical environments. We suggested that independent species pools and abundance should be incorporated in analysis to fully represent the phylogenetic structure of communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gheyur Gheyret
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Yanpei Guo
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Jingyun Fang
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
| | - Zhiyao Tang
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences and Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of Ministry of Education, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
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Owens HL, Ribeiro V, Saupe EE, Cobos ME, Hosner PA, Cooper JC, Samy AM, Barve V, Barve N, Muñoz‐R. CJ, Peterson AT. Acknowledging uncertainty in evolutionary reconstructions of ecological niches. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:6967-6977. [PMID: 32760505 PMCID: PMC7391559 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6359] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2020] [Accepted: 04/22/2020] [Indexed: 01/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Reconstructing ecological niche evolution can provide insight into the biogeography and diversification of evolving lineages. However, comparative phylogenetic methods may infer the history of ecological niche evolution inaccurately because (a) species' niches are often poorly characterized; and (b) phylogenetic comparative methods rely on niche summary statistics rather than full estimates of species' environmental tolerances. Here, we propose a new framework for coding ecological niches and reconstructing their evolution that explicitly acknowledges and incorporates the uncertainty introduced by incomplete niche characterization. Then, we modify existing ancestral state inference methods to leverage full estimates of environmental tolerances. We provide a worked empirical example of our method, investigating ecological niche evolution in the New World orioles (Aves: Passeriformes: Icterus spp.). Temperature and precipitation tolerances were generally broad and conserved among orioles, with niche reduction and specialization limited to a few terminal branches. Tools for performing these reconstructions are available in a new R package called nichevol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah L. Owens
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and ClimateGLOBE InstituteUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
- Florida Museum of Natural HistoryUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFLUSA
| | | | - Erin E. Saupe
- Department of Earth SciencesUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | | | - Peter A. Hosner
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and ClimateGLOBE InstituteUniversity of CopenhagenCopenhagenDenmark
| | - Jacob C. Cooper
- Committee on Evolutionary BiologyThe University of ChicagoChicagoILUSA
| | - Abdallah M. Samy
- Entomology DepartmentFaculty of ScienceAin Shams UniversityCairoEgypt
| | - Vijay Barve
- Florida Museum of Natural HistoryUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFLUSA
| | - Narayani Barve
- Florida Museum of Natural HistoryUniversity of FloridaGainesvilleFLUSA
| | - Carlos J. Muñoz‐R.
- Laboratorio de Análisis EspacialesInstituto de BiologíaUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de MéxicoCiudad de MéxicoMexico
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López-Jurado J, Mateos-Naranjo E, Balao F. Niche divergence and limits to expansion in the high polyploid Dianthus broteri complex. New Phytol 2019; 222:1076-1087. [PMID: 30585629 DOI: 10.1111/nph.15663] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2018] [Accepted: 12/14/2018] [Indexed: 05/25/2023]
Abstract
Niche evolution in plant polyploids remains controversial and evidence for alternative patterns has been reported. Using the autopolyploid Dianthus broteri complex (2×, 4×, 6× and 12×) as a model, we aimed to integrate three scenarios - competitive exclusion, recurrent origins of cytotypes and niche filling - into a single framework of polyploid niche evolution. We hypothesized that high polyploids would tend to evolve towards extreme niches when low ploidy cytotypes have nearly filled the niche space. We used several ecoinformatics and phylogenetic comparative analyses to quantify differences in the ecological niche of each cytotype and to evaluate alternative models of niche evolution. Each cytotype in this complex occupied a distinct ecological niche. The distributions were mainly constrained by soil characteristics, temperature and drought stress imposed by the Mediterranean climate. Tetraploids had the highest niche breadth and overlap due to their multiple origins, whereas the higher ploidy cytotypes were found in different, restricted, nonoverlapping niches. Niche evolution analyses suggested a scenario with one niche optimum for each ploidy, including the two independent tetraploid lineages. Our results suggest that the fate of nascent polyploids could not be predicted without accounting for phylogenetic relatedness, recurrent origins or the niche occupied by ancestors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier López-Jurado
- Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Apdo. 1095, E-41080, Seville, Spain
| | - Enrique Mateos-Naranjo
- Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Apdo. 1095, E-41080, Seville, Spain
| | - Francisco Balao
- Departamento de Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Apdo. 1095, E-41080, Seville, Spain
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Rodrigues JFM, Villalobos F, Iverson JB, Diniz-Filho JAF. Climatic niche evolution in turtles is characterized by phylogenetic conservatism for both aquatic and terrestrial species. J Evol Biol 2018; 32:66-75. [PMID: 30387214 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2018] [Accepted: 10/29/2018] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how the climatic niche of species evolved has been a topic of high interest in current theoretical and applied macroecological studies. However, little is known regarding how species traits might influence climatic niche evolution. Here, we evaluated patterns of climatic niche evolution in turtles (tortoises and freshwater turtles) and whether species habitat (terrestrial or aquatic) influences these patterns. We used phylogenetic, climatic and distribution data for 261 species to estimate their climatic niches. Then, we compared whether niche overlap between sister species was higher than between random species pairs and evaluated whether niche optima and rates varied between aquatic and terrestrial species. Sister species had higher values of niche overlap than random species pairs, suggesting phylogenetic climatic niche conservatism in turtles. The climatic niche evolution of the group followed an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck model with different optimum values for aquatic and terrestrial species, but we did not find consistent evidence of differences in their rates of climatic niche evolution. We conclude that phylogenetic climatic niche conservatism occurs among turtle species. Furthermore, terrestrial and aquatic species occupy different climatic niches but these seem to have evolved at similar evolutionary rates, reinforcing the importance of habitat in understanding species climatic niches and their evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- João Fabrício M Rodrigues
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil
| | - Fabricio Villalobos
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, Brazil.,Red de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico
| | - John B Iverson
- Department of Biology, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana
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Spalink D, Kriebel R, Li P, Pace MC, Drew BT, Zaborsky JG, Rose J, Drummond CP, Feist MA, Alverson WS, Waller DM, Cameron KM, Givnish TJ, Sytsma KJ. Spatial phylogenetics reveals evolutionary constraints on the assembly of a large regional flora. Am J Bot 2018; 105:1938-1950. [PMID: 30408151 DOI: 10.1002/ajb2.1191] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2018] [Accepted: 08/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
PREMISE OF THE STUDY We used spatial phylogenetics to analyze the assembly of the Wisconsin flora, linking processes of dispersal and niche evolution to spatial patterns of floristic and phylogenetic diversity and testing whether phylogenetic niche conservatism can account for these patterns. METHODS We used digitized records and a new molecular phylogeny for 93% of vascular plants in Wisconsin to estimate spatial variation in species richness and phylogenetic α and β diversity in a native flora shaped mainly by postglacial dispersal and response to environmental gradients. We developed distribution models for all species and used these to infer fine-scale variation in potential diversity, phylogenetic distance, and interspecific range overlaps. We identified 11 bioregions based on floristic composition, mapped areas of neo- and paleo-endemism to establish new conservation priorities and predict how community-assembly patterns should shift with climatic change. KEY RESULTS Spatial phylogenetic turnover most strongly reflects differences in temperature and spatial distance. For all vascular plants, assemblages shift from phylogenetically clustered to overdispersed northward, contrary to most other studies. This pattern is lost for angiosperms alone, illustrating the importance of phylogenetic scale. CONCLUSIONS Species ranges and assemblage composition appear driven primarily by phylogenetic niche conservatism. Closely related species are ecologically similar and occupy similar territories. The average level and geographic structure of plant phylogenetic diversity within Wisconsin are expected to greatly decline over the next half century, while potential species richness will increase throughout the state. Our methods can be applied to allochthonous communities throughout the world.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Spalink
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
- Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, Texas A&M University, 2138 TAMU, College Station, Texas, 77843, USA
| | - Ricardo Kriebel
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Pan Li
- Key Laboratory of Conservation Biology for Endangered Wildlife of the Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China
| | - Matthew C Pace
- New York Botanical Garden, 2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx, New York, 10485
| | - Bryan T Drew
- Department of Biology, University of Nebraska-Kearney, 2401 11th Avenue, Kearney, Nebraska, 68849, USA
| | - John G Zaborsky
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Jeffrey Rose
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Chloe P Drummond
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Mary Ann Feist
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - William S Alverson
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Donald M Waller
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Kenneth M Cameron
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Thomas J Givnish
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
| | - Kenneth J Sytsma
- Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, 430 Lincoln Drive, Madison, Wisconsin, 53704, USA
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García-Navas V, Westerman M. Niche conservatism and phylogenetic clustering in a tribe of arid-adapted marsupial mice, the Sminthopsini. J Evol Biol 2018; 31:1204-1215. [PMID: 29808505 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.13297] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2018] [Revised: 05/22/2018] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
The progressive expansion of the Australian arid zone during the last 20 Ma appears to have spurred the diversification of several families of plants, vertebrates and invertebrates, yet such taxonomic groups appear to show limited niche radiation. Here, we test whether speciation is associated with niche conservatism (constraints on ecological divergence) or niche divergence in a tribe of marsupial mice (Sminthopsini; 23 taxa) that includes the most speciose genus of living dasyurids, the sminthopsins. To that end, we integrated phylogenetic data with ecological niche modelling, to enable us to reconstruct the evolution of climatic suitability within Sminthopsini. Niche overlap among species was low-moderate (but generally higher than expected given environmental background similarity), and the degree of phylogenetic clustering increased with aridity. Climatic niche reconstruction illustrates that there has been little apparent evolution of climatic tolerance within clades. Accordingly, climatic disparity tends to be accumulated among clades, suggesting considerable niche conservatism. Our results also indicate that evolution of climatic tolerances has been heterogeneous across different dimensions of climate (temperature vs. precipitation) and across phylogenetic clusters (Sminthopsis murina group vs. other groups). Although some results point to the existence of shifts in climatic niches during the speciation of sminthopsins, our study provides evidence for substantial phylogenetic niche conservatism in the group. We conclude that niche diversification had a low impact on the speciation of this tribe of small, but highly mobile marsupials.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vicente García-Navas
- Department of Integrative Ecology, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Seville, Spain
| | - Michael Westerman
- Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, LaTrobe University, Melbourne, Vic., Australia
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Duarte LDS, Debastiani VJ, Carlucci MB, Diniz-Filho JAF. Analyzing community-weighted trait means across environmental gradients: should phylogeny stay or should it go? Ecology 2017; 99:385-398. [PMID: 29121389 DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/27/2017] [Revised: 09/19/2017] [Accepted: 10/24/2017] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Functional traits mediate ecological responses of organisms to the environment, determining community structure. Community-weighted trait means (CWM) are often used to characterize communities by combining information on species traits and distribution. Relating CWM variation to environmental gradients allows for evaluating species sorting across the metacommunity, either based on correlation tests or ordinary least squares (OLS) models. Yet, it is not clear if phylogenetic signal in both traits and species distribution affect those analyses. On one hand, phylogenetic signal might indicate niche conservatism along clade evolution, reinforcing the environmental signal in trait assembly patterns. On the other hand, it might introduce phylogenetic autocorrelation to mean trait variation among communities. Under this latter scenario, phylogenetic signal might inflate type I error in analysis relating CWM variation to environmental gradients. We explore multiple ways phylogenetic history may influence analysis relating CWM to environmental gradients. We propose the concept of neutral trait diffusion, which predicts that for a functional trait x, CWM variation among local communities does not deviate from the expectation that x evolved according to a neutral evolutionary process. Based on this framework we introduce a graphical tool called neutral trait diffusion representation (NTDR) that allows for the evaluation of whether it is necessary to carry out phylogenetic correction in the trait prior to analyzing the association between CWM and environmental gradients. We illustrate the NTDR approach using simulated traits, phylogenies and metacommunities. We show that even under moderate phylogenetic signal in both the trait used to define CWM and species distribution across communities, OLS models relating CWM variation to environmental gradients lead to inflated type I error when testing the null hypothesis of no association between CWM and environmental gradient. To overcome this issue, we propose a phylogenetic correction for OLS models and evaluate its statistical performance (type I error and power). Phylogeny-corrected OLS models successfully control for type I error in analysis relating CWM variation to environmental gradients but may show decreased power. Combining the exploratory tool of NTDR and phylogenetic correction in traits, when necessary, guarantees more precise inferences about the environmental forces driving trait-mediated species sorting across metacommunities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leandro D S Duarte
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500 CP 15007, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil
| | - Vanderlei J Debastiani
- Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500 CP 15007, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil
| | - Marcos B Carlucci
- Departamento de Botânica, Setor de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, CP 19031, Curitiba, Paraná, 81531-980, Brazil
| | - José Alexandre F Diniz-Filho
- Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Goiás, CP 131, Goiânia, Goiás, 74690-900, Brazil
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11
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Purschke O, Michalski SG, Bruelheide H, Durka W. Phylogenetic turnover during subtropical forest succession across environmental and phylogenetic scales. Ecol Evol 2017; 7:11079-11091. [PMID: 29299283 PMCID: PMC5743486 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/26/2017] [Accepted: 10/08/2017] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Although spatial and temporal patterns of phylogenetic community structure during succession are inherently interlinked and assembly processes vary with environmental and phylogenetic scales, successional studies of community assembly have yet to integrate spatial and temporal components of community structure, while accounting for scaling issues. To gain insight into the processes that generate biodiversity after disturbance, we combine analyses of spatial and temporal phylogenetic turnover across phylogenetic scales, accounting for covariation with environmental differences. We compared phylogenetic turnover, at the species- and individual-level, within and between five successional stages, representing woody plant communities in a subtropical forest chronosequence. We decomposed turnover at different phylogenetic depths and assessed its covariation with between-plot abiotic differences. Phylogenetic turnover between stages was low relative to species turnover and was not explained by abiotic differences. However, within the late-successional stages, there was high presence-/absence-based turnover (clustering) that occurred deep in the phylogeny and covaried with environmental differentiation. Our results support a deterministic model of community assembly where (i) phylogenetic composition is constrained through successional time, but (ii) toward late succession, species sorting into preferred habitats according to niche traits that are conserved deep in phylogeny, becomes increasingly important.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver Purschke
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Geobotany and Botanical GardenInstitute of BiologyMartin Luther University Halle‐WittenbergHalle (Saale)Germany
- Department of Community EcologyHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZHalle (Saale)Germany
| | - Stefan G. Michalski
- Department of Community EcologyHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZHalle (Saale)Germany
| | - Helge Bruelheide
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Geobotany and Botanical GardenInstitute of BiologyMartin Luther University Halle‐WittenbergHalle (Saale)Germany
| | - Walter Durka
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle‐Jena‐LeipzigLeipzigGermany
- Department of Community EcologyHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZHalle (Saale)Germany
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12
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Gomes SIF, Aguirre‐Gutiérrez J, Bidartondo MI, Merckx VSFT. Arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions of mycoheterotrophic Thismia are more specialized than in autotrophic plants. New Phytol 2017; 213:1418-1427. [PMID: 27739593 PMCID: PMC5248637 DOI: 10.1111/nph.14249] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2016] [Accepted: 09/05/2016] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
In general, plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi exchange photosynthetically fixed carbon for soil nutrients, but occasionally nonphotosynthetic plants obtain carbon from AM fungi. The interactions of these mycoheterotrophic plants with AM fungi are suggested to be more specialized than those of green plants, although direct comparisons are lacking. We investigated the mycorrhizal interactions of both green and mycoheterotrophic plants. We used next-generation DNA sequencing to compare the AM communities from roots of five closely related mycoheterotrophic species of Thismia (Thismiaceae), roots of surrounding green plants, and soil, sampled over the entire temperate distribution of Thismia in Australia and New Zealand. We observed that the fungal communities of mycoheterotrophic and green plants are phylogenetically more similar within than between these groups of plants, suggesting a specific association pattern according to plant trophic mode. Moreover, mycoheterotrophic plants follow a more restricted association with their fungal partners in terms of phylogenetic diversity when compared with green plants, targeting more clustered lineages of fungi, independent of geographic origin. Our findings demonstrate that these mycoheterotrophic plants target more narrow lineages of fungi than green plants, despite the larger fungal pool available in the soil, and thus they are more specialized towards mycorrhizal fungi than autotrophic plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sofia I. F. Gomes
- Naturalis Biodiversity Centerpostbus 9517Leiden2300 RAthe Netherlands
- Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)University of Leidenpostbus 9500Leiden2300 RAthe Netherlands
| | - Jesús Aguirre‐Gutiérrez
- Naturalis Biodiversity Centerpostbus 9517Leiden2300 RAthe Netherlands
- Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)Computational Geo‐EcologyUniversity of AmsterdamScience Park 904Amsterdam1098 HXthe Netherlands
| | - Martin I. Bidartondo
- Department of Life SciencesImperial College LondonLondonSW7 2AZUK
- Royal Botanic Gardens, KewRichmondSurreyTW9 3DSUK
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13
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Miller ET, Wagner SK, Harmon LJ, Ricklefs RE. Radiating despite a Lack of Character: Ecological Divergence among Closely Related, Morphologically Similar Honeyeaters (Aves: Meliphagidae) Co-occurring in Arid Australian Environments. Am Nat 2016; 189:E14-E30. [PMID: 28107055 DOI: 10.1086/690008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Quantifying the relationship between form and function can inform use of morphology as a surrogate for ecology. How the strength of this relationship varies continentally can inform understanding of evolutionary radiations; for example, does the relationship break down when certain lineages invade and diversify in novel habitats? The 75 species of Australian honeyeaters (Meliphagidae) are morphologically and ecologically diverse, with species feeding on nectar, insects, fruit, and other resources. We investigated Meliphagidae ecomorphology and community structure by (1) quantifying the concordance between morphology and ecology (foraging behavior), (2) estimating rates of trait evolution in relation to the packing of ecological space, and (3) comparing phylogenetic and trait community structure across the broad environmental gradients of the continent. We found that morphology explained 37% of the variance in ecology (and 62% vice versa), and we uncovered well-known bivariate relationships among the multivariate ecomorphological data. Ecological trait diversity declined less rapidly than phylogenetic diversity along a gradient of decreasing precipitation. We employ a new method (trait fields) and extend another (phylogenetic fields) to show that while species in phylogenetically clustered, arid-environment assemblages are similar morphologically, they are as varied in foraging behavior as those from more diverse assemblages. Thus, although closely related and similar morphologically, these arid-adapted species have diverged in ecological space to a similar degree as their mesic counterparts.
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14
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Economo EP, Klimov P, Sarnat EM, Guénard B, Weiser MD, Lecroq B, Knowles LL. Global phylogenetic structure of the hyperdiverse ant genus Pheidole reveals the repeated evolution of macroecological patterns. Proc Biol Sci 2015; 282:20141416. [PMID: 25429013 PMCID: PMC4262160 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2014.1416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Adaptive radiations are of particular interest owing to what they reveal about the ecological and evolutionary regulation of biodiversity. This applies to localized island radiations such as Darwin's finches, and also to rapid radiations occurring on a global scale. Here we analyse the macroevolution and macroecology of Pheidole, a famously hyperdiverse and ecologically dominant ant genus. We generate and analyse four novel datasets: (i) a robust global phylogeny including 285 Pheidole species, (ii) a global database on regional Pheidole richness in 365 political areas summarizing over 97 000 individual records from more than 6500 studies, (iii) a global database of Pheidole richness from 3796 local communities and (iv) a database of Pheidole body sizes across species. Analysis of the potential climate drivers of richness revealed that the patterns are statistically very similar across different biogeographic regions, with both regional and local richness associated with the same coefficients of temperature and precipitation. This similarity occurs even though phylogenetic analysis shows that Pheidole reached dominance in communities through serial localized radiations into different biomes within different continents and islands. Pheidole body size distributions have likewise converged across geographical regions. We propose these cases of convergence indicate that the global radiation of Pheidole is structured by deterministic factors regulating diversification and diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan P Economo
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son 904-0495, Japan Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 830 N University Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48701, USA
| | - Pavel Klimov
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 830 N University Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48701, USA Tyumen State University, 10 Semakova St., Tyumen 625003, Russian Federation
| | - Eli M Sarnat
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Benoit Guénard
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son 904-0495, Japan
| | - Michael D Weiser
- Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, 730 Van Vleet Oval, Norman, OK 73019, USA
| | - Beatrice Lecroq
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son 904-0495, Japan
| | - L Lacey Knowles
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 830 N University Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48701, USA
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15
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Wang M, Liu F, Lin P, Yang S, Liu H. Evolutionary dynamics of ecological niche in three Rhinogobio fishes from the upper Yangtze River inferred from morphological traits. Ecol Evol 2015; 5:567-77. [PMID: 25691981 PMCID: PMC4328762 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.1386] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2014] [Accepted: 12/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
In the past decades, it has been debated whether ecological niche should be conserved among closely related species (phylogenetic niche conservatism, PNC) or largely divergent (traditional ecological niche theory and ecological speciation) and whether niche specialist and generalist might remain in equilibrium or niche generalist could not appear. In this study, we employed morphological traits to describe ecological niche and test whether different niche dimensions exhibit disparate evolutionary patterns. We conducted our analysis on three Rhinogobio fish species (R. typus,R. cylindricus, and R. ventralis) from the upper Yangtze River, China. Among the 32 measured morphological traits except body length, PCA extracted the first four principal components with their loading scores >1.000. To find the PNC among species, Mantel tests were conducted with the Euclidean distances calculated from the four principal components (representing different niche dimensions) against the pairwise distances calculated from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence variations. The results showed that the second and the third niche dimension, both related to swimming ability and behavior, exhibited phylogenetic conservatism. Further comparison on niche breadth among these three species revealed that the fourth dimension of R. typus showed the greatest width, indicating that this dimension exhibited niche generalism. In conclusion, our results suggested that different niche dimensions could show different evolutionary dynamic patterns: they may exhibit PNC or not, and some dimensions may evolve generalism.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meirong Wang
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing, 100039, China
| | - Fei Liu
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Pengcheng Lin
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Shaorong Yang
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; China Three Gorges Corporation Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, China
| | - Huanzhang Liu
- Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China ; The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
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16
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Weeks A, Zapata F, Pell SK, Daly DC, Mitchell JD, Fine PVA. To move or to evolve: contrasting patterns of intercontinental connectivity and climatic niche evolution in "Terebinthaceae" (Anacardiaceae and Burseraceae). Front Genet 2014; 5:409. [PMID: 25506354 PMCID: PMC4247111 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2014.00409] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2014] [Accepted: 11/04/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Many angiosperm families are distributed pantropically, yet for any given continent little is known about which lineages are ancient residents or recent arrivals. Here we use a comprehensive sampling of the pantropical sister pair Anacardiaceae and Burseraceae to assess the relative importance of continental vicariance, long-distance dispersal and niche-conservatism in generating its distinctive pattern of diversity over time. Each family has approximately the same number of species and identical stem age, yet Anacardiaceae display a broader range of fruit morphologies and dispersal strategies and include species that can withstand freezing temperatures, whereas Burseraceae do not. We found that nuclear and chloroplast data yielded a highly supported phylogenetic reconstruction that supports current taxonomic concepts and time-calibrated biogeographic reconstructions that are broadly congruent with the fossil record. We conclude that the most recent common ancestor of these families was widespread and likely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous and that vicariance between Eastern and Western Hemispheres coincided with the initial divergence of the families. The tempo of diversification of the families is strikingly different. Anacardiaceae steadily accumulated lineages starting in the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene while the majority of Burseraceae diversification occurred in the Miocene. Multiple dispersal- and vicariance-based intercontinental colonization events are inferred for both families throughout the past 100 million years. However, Anacardiaceae have shifted climatic niches frequently during this time, while Burseraceae have experienced very few shifts between dry and wet climates and only in the tropics. Thus, we conclude that both Anacardiaceae and Burseraceae move easily but that Anacardiaceae have adapted more often, either due to more varied selective pressures or greater intrinsic lability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Weeks
- Department of Biology and Ted R. Bradley Herbarium, George Mason University Fairfax, VA, USA
| | - Felipe Zapata
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Brown University Providence, RI, USA
| | - Susan K Pell
- United States Botanical Garden Washington, DC, USA
| | - Douglas C Daly
- Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY, USA
| | - John D Mitchell
- Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden Bronx, NY, USA
| | - Paul V A Fine
- Department of Integrative Biology and Jepson and University Herbaria, University of California Berkeley, CA, USA
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17
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Abstract
Recent debate on whether climatic niches are conserved through time has focused on how phylogenetic niche conservatism can be measured by deviations from a Brownian motion model of evolutionary change. However, there has been no evaluation of this methodological approach. In particular, the fact that climatic niches are usually obtained from distribution data and are thus heavily influenced by biogeographic factors has largely been overlooked. Our main objective here was to test whether patterns of climatic niche evolution that are frequently observed might arise from neutral dynamics rather than from adaptive scenarios. We developed a model inspired by neutral biodiversity theory, where individuals disperse, compete, and undergo speciation independently of climate. We then sampled the climatic niches of species according to their geographic position and showed that even when species evolve independently of climate, their niches can nonetheless exhibit evolutionary patterns strongly differing from Brownian motion. Indeed, climatic niche evolution is better captured by a model of punctuated evolution with constraints due to landscape boundaries, two features that are traditionally interpreted as evidence for selective processes acting on the niche. We therefore suggest that deviation from Brownian motion alone should not be used as evidence for phylogenetic niche conservatism but that information on phenotypic traits directly linked to physiology is required to demonstrate that climatic niches have been conserved through time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian C. Boucher
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5533 CNRS-Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France ;
| | - Wilfried Thuiller
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5533 CNRS-Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France ;
| | | | - Sébastien Lavergne
- Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, UMR 5533 CNRS-Université de Grenoble, Grenoble, France ;
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18
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Miller ET, Zanne AE, Ricklefs RE. Niche conservatism constrains Australian honeyeater assemblages in stressful environments. Ecol Lett 2013; 16:1186-94. [PMID: 23848846 DOI: 10.1111/ele.12156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2013] [Revised: 04/01/2013] [Accepted: 06/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The hypothesis of phylogenetic niche conservatism proposes that most extant members of a clade remain in ancestral environments because expansion into new ecological space imposes a selectional load on a population. A prediction that follows is that local assemblages contain increasingly phylogenetically clustered subsets of species with increasing difference from the ancestral environment of a clade. We test this in Australian Meliphagidae, a continental radiation of birds that originated in wet, subtropical environments, but subsequently spread to drier environments as Australia became more arid during the late Cenozoic. We find local assemblages are increasingly phylogenetically clustered along a gradient of decreasing precipitation. The pattern is less clear along a temperature gradient. We develop a novel phyloclimatespace to visualise the expansion of some lineages into drier habitats. Although few species extend into arid regions, those that do occupy larger ranges and thus local species richness does not decline predictably with precipitation.
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Affiliation(s)
- E T Miller
- Department of Biology, University of Missouri, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA.
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19
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Lavin M, Brummer TJ, Quire R, Maxwell BD, Rew LJ. Physical disturbance shapes vascular plant diversity more profoundly than fire in the sagebrush steppe of southeastern Idaho, U.S.A. Ecol Evol 2013; 3:1626-41. [PMID: 23789073 PMCID: PMC3686197 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.574] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2013] [Revised: 03/30/2013] [Accepted: 04/01/2013] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Fire is thought to profoundly change the ecology of the sagebrush steppe. The Idaho National Laboratory provides an ideal setting to compare the effects of fire and physical disturbance on plant diversity in high-native-cover sagebrush steppe. Seventy-eight 1-hectare transects were established along paved, green-striped, gravel, and two-track roads, in overgrazed rangeland, and within sagebrush steppe involving different fire histories. Transects were sampled for the diversity and abundance of all vascular plants. Alpha, beta, and phylogenetic beta diversity were analyzed as a response to fire and physical disturbance. Postfire vegetation readily rebounds to prefire levels of alpha plant diversity. Physical disturbance, in contrast, strongly shapes patterns of alpha, beta, and especially phylogenetic beta diversity much more profoundly than fire disturbance. If fire is a concern in the sagebrush steppe then the degree of physical-disturbance should be more so. This finding is probably not specific to the study area but applicable to the northern and eastern portions of the sagebrush biome, which is characterized by a pulse of spring moisture and cold mean minimum winter temperatures. The distinction of sagebrush steppe from Great Basin sagebrush should be revised especially with regard to reseeding efforts and the control of annual grasses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matt Lavin
- Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, Montana State University Bozeman, MT, 59717
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