Different elevational environments dictate contrasting patterns of niche evolution in NeotropicalPithecopustreefrog species

Abstract

Understanding how species' ecological niches evolve can shed light on observed large-scale biogeographic patterns, temporal range shifts, and the potential ability for species to cope with climate changes. Here, we investigated climatic niche evolution in the Neotropical treefrog genus Pithecopus by testing for phylogenetic niche conservatism (PNC). We first evaluated niche overlap patterns based on pairwise niche comparisons of sister species pairs inferred from two alternative topologies for the genus, where higher niche overlap for those pairs compared to random species pairs would represent evidence of PNC. Second, we evaluated phylogenetic conservatism of climatic niches by fitting evolutionary models for niche position and niche breadth across the two alternative phylogenetic trees for the genus. Sister species pairs did not show higher mean niche overlap when compared to random pairs. Comparisons considering species' elevational habitats, on the other hand, showed that lowland sister species had greater niche overlap and montane species lower overlap than expected given the prevailing environmental conditions in each habitat, suggesting different evolutionary histories of niche differentiation for species with different elevational ranges. The best fit of niche position and breadth to both stasis and drift models supported the existence of PNC. We conclude that evolution of climatic niches in Pithecopus suggests overall PNC and that the contrasting patterns found for lowland and mountainous species reinforce the importance of considering the effects of habitat type in understanding climatic niches dynamics.

Phylogenomics, introgression, and demographic history of South American true toads (Rhinella)

“…The Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests and savannas of South America have been known to harbor complex and cryptic genetic diversity and have been especially affected by Quaternary climate fluctuations (Bandeira et al, 2021;Fonseca et al, 2018;Gehara et al, 2017;Prado et al, 2012;Vasconcellos et al, 2019;Werneck et al, 2015). Considering the phylogenetic pattern that we see within R. schneideri, we can posit that this species expanded eastward during Plio-Pleistocene climate change (Bandeira et al, 2021;Lisiecki & Raymo, 2007). Paleoclimatic modelling of the biogeographic history and niche of R. schneideri on a finer scale is recommended to validate this hypothesis.…”

“…Similar to what is observed within R. marina, we see patterns of species distributed across environmental gradients repeated across the phylogeny; R. schneideri is distributed across the Cerrado, through Cerrado-Caatinga-Atlantic Forest ecotones, and into the northern Atlantic Forest, with an east-west gradient of admixture (Figures 1 and 3). The Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests and savannas of South America have been known to harbor complex and cryptic genetic diversity and have been especially affected by Quaternary climate fluctuations (Bandeira et al, 2021;Fonseca et al, 2018;Gehara et al, 2017;Prado et al, 2012;Vasconcellos et al, 2019;Werneck et al, 2015). Considering the phylogenetic pattern that we see within R. schneideri, we can posit that this species expanded eastward during Plio-Pleistocene climate change (Bandeira et al, 2021;Lisiecki & Raymo, 2007).…”

“…Considering the phylogenetic pattern that we see within R . schneideri , we can posit that this species expanded eastward during Plio‐Pleistocene climate change (Bandeira et al, 2021; Lisiecki & Raymo, 2007). Paleoclimatic modelling of the biogeographic history and niche of R .…”

“…schneideri is distributed across the Cerrado, through Cerrado‐Caatinga‐Atlantic Forest ecotones, and into the northern Atlantic Forest, with an east‐west gradient of admixture (Figures 1 and 3). The Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests and savannas of South America have been known to harbor complex and cryptic genetic diversity and have been especially affected by Quaternary climate fluctuations (Bandeira et al, 2021; Fonseca et al, 2018; Gehara et al, 2017; Prado et al, 2012; Vasconcellos et al, 2019; Werneck et al, 2015). Considering the phylogenetic pattern that we see within R .…”

Climatic niche conservatism and ecological diversification in the Holarctic cold-dwelling butterfly genusErebia

“…We kept the 68 species with > 5 occurrence points in our dataset for analysis. Then, we calculated the total climatic niche overlap of all species pairs using the Schoener’s D index following (Bandeira et al 2021). The resulting pairwise matrix contained climatic niche overlap values for all species pairs (Supplementary material, Table S5).…”