Integrating morphology, phylogeography, and ecological niche modeling to explore population differentiation in North African Common Chaffinches

Abstract

Diagnosing distinct evolutionary taxa requires careful assessment of genetic, morphological, ecological, and behavioral variation within and among populations. In this study, data on phenotype (mensural and plumage coloration), genotype (mitochondrial DNA control-region sequences), and distributional projections derived from ecological niche models, were used to investigate population differentiation of North African Common Chaffinches. Results showed substantial genetic variation among populations, mostly (*56 %) distributed between Libyan populations and other North African populations, rather than within populations. Isolation-by-distance analysis indicated severely restricted gene flow between populations. Historical demographic analyses indicate that population expansion began before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with ecological niche model paleoprojections; interestingly, differentiation of the Libyan population (Fringilla coelebs harterti) apparently did not take place under the last glacial conditions. Hence, although its taxonomic status must await robust testing using multilocus DNA data, this population is an important element in the conservation of bird diversity in North Africa.

Ecological niche modelling of pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) supports the ‘expansion–contraction’ model of Pleistocene biogeography

“…Before constructing the models, we first inspected the layers for spatial artefacts: Bio 8-9 and Bio 18-19 showed some anomalies across the study area (e.g. Perktaş, Peterson, Dyer, 2017) so these four bioclimatic variables were removed from the analysis. Secondly, we removed several highly correlated bioclimatic variables (r > 0.85 or < −0.85) to reduce multicollinearity, which left six variables: Bio 1 (annual mean temperature), Bio 2 (mean diurnal range), Bio 3 (isothermality) Bio 4 (temperature seasonality), Bio 12 (annual precipitation) and Bio 15 (precipitation seasonality).…”

“…The 10-percentile training presence thresholding approach was used to convert model outputs to binary predictions (Radosavljevic & Anderson, 2014). To assess the statistical robustness of model predictions, we used partial ROC statistics (Peterson, Papes & Soberon, 2008; for methodological details see Perktaş et al, 2017). For the best predictions, in addition to the other metrics (i.e.…”

Phylogeny of the Eurasian Wren Nannus troglodytes (Aves: Passeriformes: Troglodytidae) reveals deep and complex diversification patterns of Ibero-Maghrebian and Cyrenaican populations

“…in chelonians: Testudo graeca [154]; and in lizards: Acanthodactylus pardalis group [155]), in birds (e.g. Cyanistes teneriffae [27][28][29], Galerida cristata [156], and Fringilla coelebs [30]) and in mammals (e.g. Jaculus orientalis [157]).…”

“…These are separated by a large desert area from their closest conspecifics in the Maghreb and therefore, some Cyrenaican populations represent distinct and relict genetic lineages (e.g. in African Blue Tits Cyanistes teneriffae [27][28][29] and in Common Chaffinches Fringilla coelebs [30]).…”

A contribution to the biogeography and taxonomy of two Anatolian mountain brook newts, Neurergusbarani and N. strauchii (Amphibia: Salamandridae) using ecological niche modeling

“…According to Manel, Williams and Ormerod (2001), model scores are assessed as follows: AUC = 0.5 reflects a performance equivalent to random, AUC > 0.7 reflects a useful performance, AUC > 0.8 reflects a good performance and AUC ≥ 0.9 reflects an excellent performance. Finally, our model inputs were transformed into binary predictions using 10-percentile thresholding approach to visualize the "best" model (Perktaş et al, 2017).…”