scholarly journals Climatic niche dynamics and its role in the insular endemism ofAnolislizards

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian A. Velasco ◽  
Enrique Martinez-Meyer ◽  
Oscar Flores-Villela

AbstractWe evaluated the tempo and mode of climatic niche evolution in the radiation of CaribbeanAnolislizards and the role of climate in shaping their exceptional insular endemism. Using phylogenetic comparative methods, climatic niche data and a calibrated phylogeny, we reconstructed climatic niche dynamics across time and space for CaribbeanAnolislizards. We found evidence of several instances of niche shifts through the CaribbeanAnolisradiation. Caribbean anole species have diversified mainly along a precipitation rather than a temperature gradient. Only a few lineages have colonized both cold and hot conditions. Furthermore, most of the single-island endemic species are climatically restricted to its native islands and a small set of species might the potential to colonize other islands given its climatic niche requirements. Overall, we found evidence that climate niche conservation has played a role structuring current insularAnolisendemism. The observed climatic dissimilarity across the Greater Antilles likely limit successful population establishment of potential exotic insular species.

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1779) ◽  
pp. 20133017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatsuya Amano ◽  
Robert P. Freckleton ◽  
Simon A. Queenborough ◽  
Simon W. Doxford ◽  
Richard J. Smithers ◽  
...  

To generate realistic projections of species’ responses to climate change, we need to understand the factors that limit their ability to respond. Although climatic niche conservatism, the maintenance of a species’s climatic niche over time, is a critical assumption in niche-based species distribution models, little is known about how universal it is and how it operates. In particular, few studies have tested the role of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes in explaining the reported wide variance in the extent of range shifts among species. Using historical records of the phenology and spatial distribution of British plants under a warming climate, we revealed that: (i) perennial species, as well as those with weaker or lagged phenological responses to temperature, experienced a greater increase in temperature during flowering (i.e. failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes); (ii) species that failed to maintain climatic niche via phenological changes showed greater northward range shifts; and (iii) there was a complementary relationship between the levels of climatic niche conservatism via phenological changes and range shifts. These results indicate that even species with high climatic niche conservatism might not show range shifts as instead they track warming temperatures during flowering by advancing their phenology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-150
Author(s):  
Nicole A. Jacoberger

This article examines the contrasting evolution in sugar refining in Jamaica and Barbados incentivized by Mercantilist policies, changes in labor systems, and competition from foreign sugar revealing the role of Caribbean plantations as a site for experimentation from the eighteenth through mid-nineteenth century. Britain's seventeenth- and eighteenth-century protectionist policies imposed high duties on refined cane-sugar from the colonies, discouraging colonies from exporting refined sugar as opposed to raw. This system allowed Britain to retain control over trade and commerce and provided exclusive sugar sales to Caribbean sugar plantations. Barbadian planters swiftly gained immense wealth and political power until Jamaica and other islands produced competitive sugar. The Jamaica Assembly invested heavily in technological innovations intended to improve efficiency, produce competitive sugar in a market that eventually opened to foreign competition such as sugar beet, and increase profits to undercut losses from duties. They valued local knowledge, incentivizing everyone from local planters to chemists, engineers, and science enthusiasts to experiment in Jamaica and publish their findings. These publications disseminated important findings throughout Britain and its colonies, revealing the significance of the Caribbean as a site for local experimentation and knowledge.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (19) ◽  
pp. R1252-R1266
Author(s):  
Olivia K. Bates ◽  
Cleo Bertelsmeier

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Acevedo Mejia ◽  
Lu Han ◽  
Marie Kim ◽  
N. Laframboise

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