Biotic Interactions Contribute to the Geographic Range Limit of an Annual Plant: Herbivory and Phenology Mediate Fitness beyond a Range Margin

2019 ◽  
Vol 193 (6) ◽  
pp. 786-797 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Benning ◽  
Vincent M. Eckhart ◽  
Monica A. Geber ◽  
David A. Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Annual Plant ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Range Margin

scholarly journals Biotic interactions limit the geographic range of an annual plant: herbivory and phenology mediate fitness beyond a range margin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Benning ◽  
Vincent M. Eckhart ◽  
Monica A. Geber ◽  
David A. Moeller
Keyword(s):  
Field Experiments ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Species Distributions ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Limits ◽  
Annual Plant ◽  
Lifetime Fitness ◽  
Steep Gradient ◽  
Clarkia Xantiana

AbstractSpecies’ range limits offer powerful opportunities to study environmental factors regulating distributions and probe the limits of adaptation. However, we rarely know what aspects of the environment are actually constraining range expansion, much less which traits are mediating the organisms’ response to these environmental gradients. Though most studies focus on climatic limits to species’ distributions, biotic interactions may be just as important. We used field experiments and simulations to estimate contributions of mammal herbivory to a range boundary in the annual plant Clarkia xantiana ssp. xantiana. A steep gradient of increasing probability of herbivory occurs across the boundary, and herbivory drives several-fold declines in lifetime fitness at and beyond the boundary. By including in our analyses data from a sister taxon with more rapid phenology, we show that delayed phenology drives C. xantiana ssp. xantiana’s susceptibility to herbivory and low fitness beyond its border.

Reduced pollinator service and elevated pollen limitation at the geographic range limit of an annual plant

Ecology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 93 (5) ◽  
pp. 1036-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Moeller ◽  
Monica A. Geber ◽  
Vincent M. Eckhart ◽  
Peter Tiffin
Keyword(s):  
Pollen Limitation ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Annual Plant ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Pollinator Service

scholarly journals New record of the fringed leaf frog, Cruziohyla craspedopus (Anura: Phyllomedusidae) extends its eastern range limit

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael de FRAGA ◽  
Kelly TORRALVO
Keyword(s):  
Brazilian Amazon ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Morphological Data ◽  
Tree Cover ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Species Occurrence ◽  
Occasional Occurrence ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Arboreal Habit ◽  
Occurrence Records

ABSTRACT The fringed leaf frog, Cruziohyla craspedopus is rarely sampled in the Brazilian Amazon, probably due to low detection probability associated with its arboreal habit. The knowledge about the species’ distribution stems from successive additions of occasional occurrence records, which indicate that the species is widely distributed throughout Amazonia. We present new occurrence records to update the geographic range of the species, which is hereby extended 224 km to the northeast. We also present morphological data from collected specimens and discuss the updated range from the geographic and ecological points of view. We show that the range of the leaf frog crosses several main tributaries along the southern bank of the Amazonas River, although the species occurrence is apparently limited by a minimum tree cover of 70%.

scholarly journals Dynamics of range margins for metapopulations under climate change

2009 ◽  
Vol 276 (1661) ◽  
pp. 1415-1420 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.J Anderson ◽  
H.R Akçakaya ◽  
M.B Araújo ◽  
D.A Fordham ◽  
E Martinez-Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Relative Sensitivity ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Metapopulation Dynamics ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Dispersive Estimate ◽  
Lower Elevation ◽  
Conservation Concern

We link spatially explicit climate change predictions to a dynamic metapopulation model. Predictions of species' responses to climate change, incorporating metapopulation dynamics and elements of dispersal, allow us to explore the range margin dynamics for two lagomorphs of conservation concern. Although the lagomorphs have very different distribution patterns, shifts at the edge of the range were more pronounced than shifts in the overall metapopulation. For Romerolagus diazi (volcano rabbit), the lower elevation range limit shifted upslope by approximately 700 m. This reduced the area occupied by the metapopulation, as the mountain peak currently lacks suitable vegetation. For Lepus timidus (European mountain hare), we modelled the British metapopulation. Increasing the dispersive estimate caused the metapopulation to shift faster on the northern range margin (leading edge). By contrast, it caused the metapopulation to respond to climate change slower , rather than faster, on the southern range margin (trailing edge). The differential responses of the leading and trailing range margins and the relative sensitivity of range limits to climate change compared with that of the metapopulation centroid have important implications for where conservation monitoring should be targeted. Our study demonstrates the importance and possibility of moving from simple bioclimatic envelope models to second-generation models that incorporate both dynamic climate change and metapopulation dynamics.

Population Genetics and the Evolution of Geographic Range Limits in an Annual Plant

2011 ◽  
Vol 178 (S1) ◽  
pp. S44-S57 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Moeller ◽  
Monica A. Geber ◽  
Peter Tiffin
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetics ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Limits ◽  
Annual Plant

scholarly journals Landscape genomics of an obligate mutualism: discordant population structures between a leafcutter-ant and its fungal cultivars

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad C. Smith ◽  
Jesse N. Weber ◽  
Alexander S. Mikheyev ◽  
Flavio Roces ◽  
Martin Bollazzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Diversity ◽  
Gene Flow ◽  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Genotyping By Sequencing ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Range Margin ◽  
Landscape Genomics ◽  
Temperature And Precipitation ◽  
Obligate Mutualism

AbstractTo explore landscape genomics at the range limit of an obligate mutualism, we used genotyping-by-sequencing (ddRADseq) to quantify population structure and the effect of hostsymbiont interactions between the northernmost fungus-farming leafcutter ant Atta texana and its two main types of cultivated fungus. At local scales, genome-wide differentiation between ants associated with either of the two fungal types is greater than the differentiation associated with the abiotic factors temperature and precipitation, suggesting that specific ant-fungus genome-genome combinations may have been favored by selection. For the ant hosts, we found a broad cline of genetic structure across the range, and a reduction of genetic diversity along the axis of range expansion towards the range margin. In contrast, genetic structure was patchy in the cultivated fungi, with no consistent reduction of fungal genetic diversity at the range margins. This discordance in population-genetic structure between ant hosts and fungal symbionts is surprising because the ant farmers co-disperse with their vertically-transmitted fungal symbionts, but apparently the fungi disperse occasionally also through between-nest horizontal transfer or other unknown dispersal mechanisms. The discordance in populationgenetic structure indicates that genetic drift and gene flow differ in magnitude between each partner in this leafcutter mutualism. Together, these findings imply that variation in the strength of drift and gene flow experienced by each mutualistic partner affects adaptation to environmental stress at the range margin, and genome-genome interactions between host and symbiont influences adaptive genetic differentiation of the host during range evolution in this obligate mutualism.

A genetically based ecological trade‐off contributes to setting a geographic range limit

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander A. Mauro ◽  
Julián Torres‐Dowdall ◽  
Craig A. Marshall ◽  
Cameron K. Ghalambor
Keyword(s):  
Geographic Range ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Trade Off

scholarly journals Barriers to coexistence limit the poleward range of a globally-distributed plant

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W. Armitage ◽  
Stuart E. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Species Interactions ◽  
Thermal Response ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Predictive Ability ◽  
Range Limit ◽  
Ecological Niche Models ◽  
Limit Theory ◽  
Coexistence Theory ◽  
Species Tolerance ◽  
Niche Models

AbstractSpecies’ poleward ranges are thought to be primarily limited by climatic constraints rather than biotic interactions such as competition. However, theory suggests that a species’ tolerance to competition is reduced in harsh environments, such as at the extremes of its climatic niche. This implies that under certain conditions, interspecific competition near species’ range margins can prevent the establishment of populations into otherwise tolerable environments and results in geographic distributions being shaped by the interaction of climate and competition. We test this prediction by challenging an experimentally-parameterized mechanistic competition model to predict the poleward range boundaries of two widely co-occurring and ecologically-similar aquatic duckweed plants. We show that simple, mechanistic ecological niche models which include competition and thermal response terms best predict the northern range limits of our study species, outperforming competition-free mechanistic models and matching the predictive ability of popular statistical niche models fit to occurrence records. Next, using the theoretical framework of modern coexistence theory, we show that relative nonlinearity in competitors’ responses to temperature fluctuations maintains coexistence at the subordinate competitor’s poleward range boundary, highlighting the importance of this underappreciated fluctuation-dependent coexistence mechanism. Our results demonstrate the predictive utility of mechanistic niche models and support a more nuanced, interactive role of climate and species interactions in determining range boundaries, which may help explain the conflicting results from previous tests of classic range limit theory and contribute to a more mechanistic understanding of range dynamics under global change.

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