Links between plant species’ spatial and temporal responses to a warming climate

To generate realistic projections of species’ responses to climate change, we need to understand the factors that limit their ability to respond. Although climatic niche conservatism, the maintenance of a species’s climatic niche over time, is a critical assumption in niche-based species distribution models, little is known about how universal it is and how it operates. In particular, few studies have tested the role of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes in explaining the reported wide variance in the extent of range shifts among species. Using historical records of the phenology and spatial distribution of British plants under a warming climate, we revealed that: (i) perennial species, as well as those with weaker or lagged phenological responses to temperature, experienced a greater increase in temperature during flowering (i.e. failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes); (ii) species that failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes showed greater northward range shifts; and (iii) there was a complementary relationship between the levels of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes and range shifts. These results indicate that even species with high climatic niche conservatism might not show range shifts as instead they track warming temperatures during flowering by advancing their phenology.     

HOW IS THE RATE OF CLIMATIC‐NICHE EVOLUTION RELATED TO CLIMATIC‐NICHE BREADTH?

The rate of climatic‐niche evolution is important to many research areas in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology, including responses of species to global climate change, spread of invasive species, speciation, biogeography, and patterns of species richness. Previous studies have implied that clades with higher rates of climatic‐niche evolution among species should have species with narrower niche breadths, but there is also evidence suggesting the opposite pattern. However, the relationships between rate and breadth have not been explicitly analyzed. Here, we examine the relationships between the rate of climatic‐niche evolution and climatic‐niche breadth using phylogenetic and climatic data for 250 species in the salamander family Plethodontidae, a group showing considerable variation in both rates of climatic‐niche evolution and climatic‐niche breadths. Contrary to some expectations, we find no general relationship between climatic‐niche breadth and the rate of climatic‐niche evolution. Climatic‐niche breadths for some ecologically important climatic variables considered separately (temperature seasonality and annual precipitation) do show significant relationships with the rate of climatic‐niche evolution, but rates are faster in clades in which species have broader (not narrower) niche breadths. In summary, our results show that narrower niche breadths are not necessarily associated with faster rates of niche evolution.     

Global analysis of ecological niche conservation and niche shift in exotic populations of monkeyflowers (Mimulus guttatus,M. luteus) and their hybrid (M. × robertsii)

ABSTRACT

Background

Hybridisation associated with biological invasions may generate new phenotypic combinations, allowing hybrids to occupy new ecological niches. To date, few studies have assessed niche shifts associated with hybridisation in recently introduced populations while simultaneously characterising the niche of parental species in both native and introduced ranges.     

物种分布模型理论研究进展

利用物种分布模型估计物种的真实和潜在分布区,已成为区域生态学与生物地理学中非常活跃的研究领域。然而,到目前为止,这项技术的理论基础仍然存在不足之处,一些关键的生态过程未能被有效纳入到物种分布模型的理论框架中,从而为解释物种分布模型预测的结果带来了诸多困惑。鉴于此,总结了物种分布模型的理论基础;系统探讨了物种分布模型与物种分布区的关系;特别指出了物种分布模型研究中存在的理论问题;重点阐述了物种分布模型未来的发展方向。研究认为,物种分布模型与生态位理论、源-库理论、种群动态理论、集合种群理论、进化理论等具有重要的联系;正确理解物种分布模型的预测结果与物种分布区的关系,有赖于对影响物种分布的3个主要因素(环境条件、物种相互作用与物种迁移能力)做出定量的分离;目前物种分布模型主要存在的问题是未能将物种的相互作用和物种的迁移能力有效纳入到模型的构建过程中;未来物种分布模型的发展应该加强模型背后理论框架的研究,并进一步加强整合物种相互作用过程、种群动态过程、迁移过程和物种进化过程等内容。研究还认为,从更高的理论层次模拟功能群和群落结构将是未来物种分布模型的重要发展方向。     

Phylogenetic patterns in zopherine beetles are related to ecological niche width and dispersal limitation

Niche conservatism has been proposed as the mechanism driving speciation in temperate montane clades through range fragmentation during climatic oscillations. Thus, a negative relationship between speciation rates and niche width is expected. Here, we test this prediction using American zopherine beetles. Our phylogenetic analyses recovered two clades in addition to that of the genus Zopherus: the genera Verodes and Phloeodes, which originated most likely in the Eocene, and diversified during the Miocene and the Pliocene. The assessment of clade niche width in relation to clade diversity supported the proposition of narrow niches leading to a higher probability of range fragmentation during climatic oscillations, thus increasing speciation. Additionally, almost all current populations of Phloeodes and Verodes are located within regions that retained favourable climatic conditions across warm and cold Pleistocene periods, suggesting that dispersal limitation is a strong factor controlling clade distribution. In sum, our results suggest that (i) niche width is a major determinant of the probability of speciation in temperate montane clades, by controlling the probability of potential range fragmentation and (ii) dispersal limitation is also a major determinant of the speciation process, by increasing the fragmentation of realized ranges even when potential distributions are cyclically fused during climatic oscillations. When dispersal limitation is extreme, as in zopherine beetles, populations persist just in those areas that have retained suitable conditions during extremes of past climatic oscillations. Paradoxically, this relict condition confers zopherine beetles great resilience for facing future climate change.     

Understanding global patterns of mammalian functional and phylogenetic diversity

Documenting and exploring the patterns of diversity of life on Earth has always been a central theme in biology. Species richness despite being the most commonly used measure of diversity in macroecological studies suffers from not considering the evolutionary and ecological differences among species. Phylogenetic diversity (PD) and functional diversity (FD) have been proposed as alternative measures to overcome this limitation. Although species richness, PD and FD are closely related, their relationships have never been investigated on a global scale. Comparing PD and FD with species richness corroborated the general assumptions of surrogacy of the different diversity measures. However, the analysis of the residual variance suggested that the mismatches between the diversity measures are influenced by environmental conditions. PD increased relative to species richness with increasing mean annual temperature, whereas FD decreased with decreasing seasonality relative to PD. We also show that the tropical areas are characterized by a FD deficit, a phenomenon, that suggests that in tropical areas more species can be packed into the ecological space. We discuss potential mechanisms that could have resulted in the gradient of spatial mismatch observed in the different biodiversity measures and draw parallels to local scale studies. We conclude that the use of multiple diversity measures on a global scale can help to elucidate the relative importance of historical and ecological processes shaping the present gradients in mammalian diversity.