Using phylogenetic information and the comparative method to evaluate hypotheses in macroecology

Abstract

Summary1. It is widely recognized that macroecological patterns are not independent of the evolution of the lineages involved in generating these patterns. While many researchers have begun to evaluate the effect of ancestordescendant relationships on observed patterns using the phylogenetic comparative method, most macroecological studies only utilize the cross-sectional comparative method to 'remove the phylogenetic history', without considering the option of evaluating its effect without removing it. 2. Currently, most researchers use this method without explicitly evaluating three fundamental evolutionary assumptions of the comparative method: (i) that the phylogeny is constructed without error (which implies evaluating phylogenetic uncertainty); (ii) that more closely related species tend to show more similar characters than expected by chance (which implies evaluating the phylogenetic signal) and; (iii) that the model of the characters' evolution effectively recapitulates their history (which implies comparing the fit of several evolutionary models and evaluating the uncertainty of the estimating model parameters). 3. Macroecological studies will benefit from the use of the comparative method to assess the effect of phylogenetic history without removing its effect. The comparative method will also allow for the simultaneous analysis of trait evolution and its impact on diversification rates; it is important to evaluate these processes together because they are not independent. In addition, explicit evaluations of the assumptions of comparative methods using Bayesian inferences will allow researchers to quantify the uncertainty of specific evolutionary hypotheses accounting for observed macroecological patterns. 4. We illustrate the usefulness of the method using the phylogeny of the genus Sebastes (Pisces: Scorpaeniformes), together with data on the body size-latitudinal range relationship to estimate the effect of phylogenetic history on the observed macroecological pattern.

Origin of termite eusociality: trophallaxis integrates the social, nutritional, and microbial environments

“…Kalotermitidae lack the microbe‐rich environment characteristic of a damp log on the forest floor (Rosengaus et al, ), which in turn strongly influences food quality and pathogen pressure. As ecological patterns are not independent of evolution (Pelletier et al, ; Nowak et al, ; Van Dyken & Wade, ; Hernandez et al, ), a damp, rotting log best supplies the framework for understanding the selective pressures and phenotypes that maximised fitness when cockroaches crossed the subsocial to eusocial divide.…”

Phylogenetic eigenvector maps: a framework to model and predict species traits

“…; Hernández et al . ), estimate ancestral trait values (Felsenstein ; Garland & Ives ; Zheng et al . ) and predict unknown trait values (Martins & Hansen ; Guénard et al .…”

Interspecific geographic range size-body size relationship and the diversification dynamics of Neotropical furnariid birds

“…; Agosta and Bernardo ; Hernández et al. ). This pattern means that small species can reach the full range of observed geographic range, while the species with increased body sizes are compelled to attain only larger ranges (Fig.…”