Niche Conservatism Drives Elevational Diversity Patterns in Appalachian Salamanders
@article{Kozak2010NicheCD,
title={Niche Conservatism Drives Elevational Diversity Patterns in Appalachian Salamanders},
author={Kenneth H Kozak and John J. Wiens},
journal={The American Naturalist},
year={2010},
volume={176},
pages={40 - 54}
}Many biodiversity hotspots are in montane regions, and many plant and animal groups have their highest species richness at intermediate elevations. Yet, the explanation for this hump‐shaped diversity pattern has remained unclear because no studies have addressed both the ecological and evolutionary causes. Here, we address these causes in North American plethodontid salamanders, using a near‐comprehensive phylogeny and environmental data. We develop a null model for assessing the relationship…
252 Citations
Explaining Andean megadiversity: the evolutionary and ecological causes of glassfrog elevational richness patterns.
- Environmental ScienceEcology letters
- 2013
The processes underlying Andean richness patterns using glassfrogs as a model system are elucidated, supporting the hypothesis that climatic-niche conservatism decelerates species' shifts in elevational distributions and underlies the mid-elevation richness peak.
Ecological limits to local species richness in Dusky Salamanders (genus Desmognathus)
- Environmental Science
- 2017
The authors proposed that the phylogenetic niche conservatism of these salamanders causes species to accumulate at intermediate elevations, which are characterized by the ancestral climate for the genus Desmognathus, and suggested that physiological tolerances limit dispersal into higher or lower elevations.
DIVERSITY AND NICHE EVOLUTION ALONG ARIDITY GRADIENTS IN NORTH AMERICAN LIZARDS (PHRYNOSOMATIDAE)
- Environmental Science, BiologyEvolution; international journal of organic evolution
- 2013
Phrynosomatids offer a counterexample to the idea that arid regions are inhabited by a small number of recent and highly specialized lineages, and find little support for the hypothesis that species in more extreme environments are more specialized.
Niche conservatism determines the occurrence of allopatric populations of Hyla meridionalis in different biogeographical scenarios
- Environmental Science, Biology
- 2016
The results indicate that H. meridionalis in some places occupies aquatic habitats that are suboptimal for other anuran species, which may have favoured its persistence in this niche and establishment in regions where no equivalent species occur.
Projected Loss of a Salamander Diversity Hotspot as a Consequence of Projected Global Climate Change
- Environmental SciencePloS one
- 2010
Results of this study indicate that choice of model threshold and CO2 emissions scenario affect short-term projected shifts in climatic distributions of species; however, these factors and choice of global circulation model have relatively small affects on what is significant projected loss of habitat for many salamander species that currently occupy the Appalachian Highlands.
Cryptic elevational zonation in trapdoor spiders (Araneae, Antrodiaetidae, Aliatypus janus complex) from the California southern Sierra Nevada.
- Environmental Science, BiologyMolecular phylogenetics and evolution
- 2018
What Drives Variation in Plethodontid Salamander Species Richness over Space and Time?
- Environmental ScienceHerpetologica
- 2017
New insights on the evolutionary and ecological causes of variation in plethodontid species richness over geographic space and evolutionary time are reviewed.
Elevational diversity patterns as an example for evolutionary and ecological dynamics in ferns and lycophytes
- Environmental Science
- 2016
A number of challenges are identified for improving the understanding of how evolutionary and ecological processes are linked to elevational richness patterns in f Ferns: i) limited information on traits and their ecological relevance, ii) uncertainties on the dispersal kernels of ferns and hence the delimitation of regional species pools from which local assemblages are recruited, iii) conceptual challenges in developing clear and testable hypotheses to how specific evolutionary processes can be linked to patterns in community composition and species richness.
Phylogenetic niche conservatism explains an inverse latitudinal diversity gradient in freshwater arthropods
- Environmental Science, BiologyScientific reports
- 2016
The results suggest that Colymbetinae originated in temperate climates, which supports the hypothesis that their distribution is the result of an ancestral adaptation to temperate environmental conditions rather than tropical origins, and that temperate niche conservatism can generate and/or maintain inverse latitudinal diversity gradients.
Patterns of niche diversification in south-east Asian crocodile newts
- Environmental ScienceZoologischer Anzeiger
- 2018
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 85 REFERENCES
Evolutionary and Ecological Causes of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient in Hylid Frogs: Treefrog Trees Unearth the Roots of High Tropical Diversity
- Environmental ScienceThe American Naturalist
- 2006
Overall, this study illustrates how two general principles (niche conservatism and the time‐for‐speciation effect) may help explain the latitudinal diversity gradient as well as many other diversity patterns across taxa and regions.
Climate and history explain the species richness peak at mid‐elevation for Schizothorax fishes (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) distributed in the Tibetan Plateau and its adjacent regions
- Environmental Science
- 2009
It is found that species richness of Schizothorax fishes peaked at mid-elevations, and the time-for-speciation effect and niche conservatism play important roles in variation of species richness.
Recent diversification in African greenbuls (Pycnonotidae: Andropadus) supports a montane speciation model
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences
- 1997
Analysis of the evolutionary history of the recently radiated African greenbuls finds that montane species are a derived monophyletic group when compared to lowland species of the same genus and recent speciation events have exclusively occurred in montane regions, which support the view thatmontane regions have acted as centres of speciation during recent climatic instability.
A PHYLOGENETIC PERSPECTIVE ON ELEVATIONAL SPECIES RICHNESS PATTERNS IN MIDDLE AMERICAN TREEFROGS: WHY SO FEW SPECIES IN LOWLAND TROPICAL RAINFORESTS?
- Environmental ScienceEvolution; international journal of organic evolution
- 2007
The results imply that local-scale environmental factors alone may be insufficient to explain the high species richness of lowland tropical rainforests, and that diversification rates are lower in earth's most species-rich biome.
DOES NICHE CONSERVATISM PROMOTE SPECIATION? A CASE STUDY IN NORTH AMERICAN SALAMANDERS
- Environmental Science, GeographyEvolution; international journal of organic evolution
- 2006
The results demonstrate that even the relatively subtle climatic differences between montane and lowland habitats in eastern North America may play a key role in the origin of new species.
Explaining Species Richness from Continents to Communities: The Time‐for‐Speciation Effect in Emydid Turtles
- Environmental ScienceThe American Naturalist
- 2002
It is proposed that allopatric speciation can simultaneously decrease geographic range size and increase regional diversity without increasing local diversity and that geographic range sizes can determine the relationship between α, β, and γ diversity.
The Relationship Among Area, Elevation, And Regional Species Richness In Neotropical Birds
- Environmental ScienceThe American Naturalist
- 1997
Elevational turnover rates and numbers of shared species between zones suggested that the hump‐shaped pattern relects geometric constraints (as predicted by the null model) imposed by the narrow span of the gradient, and it is suggested that midelevational zones may represent sink habitats.
DIVERSIFICATION OF RAINFOREST FAUNAS: An Integrated Molecular Approach
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2000
The current major hypotheses are outlined, predictions relevant to integrated molecular approaches are developed, and the current evidence is evaluated, focusing on central African, Australian, and South American systems.
Montane speciation patterns in Ithomiola butterflies (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae): are they consistently moving up in the world?
- Environmental Science, BiologyProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- 2005
The overwhelming pattern in Ithomiola is of repeated upward parapatric speciation across an elevational gradient, and the genus appears to provide the clearest example to date of vertical montane speciation.
Climatic zonation drives latitudinal variation in speciation mechanisms
- Environmental ScienceProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- 2007
This study demonstrates how latitudinal differences in elevational climatic zonation may increase opportunities for geographical isolation, speciation and the associated build-up of species diversity in the tropics relative to the temperate zone.