scholarly journals The role of evolutionary time, diversification rates and dispersal in determining the global diversity of a large radiation of passerine birds

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1612-1625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianlong Cai ◽  
Shimiao Shao ◽  
Jonathan D. Kennedy ◽  
Per Alström ◽  
Robert G. Moyle ◽  
...  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 913-924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nawal Shrestha ◽  
Zhiheng Wang ◽  
Xiangyan Su ◽  
Xiaoting Xu ◽  
Lisha Lyu ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul van Els ◽  
Leonel Herrera-Alsina ◽  
Alex L. Pigot ◽  
Rampal Etienne

Abstract Low elevation regions harbor the majority of the world’s species diversity compared to high elevation areas. This global elevational diversity gradient, suggests that lowland species have had more time to diversify, or that net diversification rates have been higher in the lowlands (either due to higher ecological limits or intrinsically higher diversification rates). However, highlands seem to be cradles of diversity as they contain many young endemics, suggesting that their rates of speciation are exceptionally fast. Here, we use a phylogenetic diversification model that accounts for the dispersal of species between different elevations to examine the evolutionary dynamics of the elevational diversity gradient in passerine birds, a group that has radiated globally to occupy almost all elevations and latitudes. We find strong support for a model where passerines diversify at the same rate in the highlands and the lowlands but where the rate of dispersal from high to low elevations is more than twice as fast as in the reverse direction. This suggests that while there is no consistent trend in diversification across elevations, highland regions act as species pumps because the diversity they generate migrates into the lowlands, thus setting up the observed gradient in passerine diversity. This species pump is particularly strong in the tropics, where the inferred rate of speciation is 1.4 times faster than in the temperate zone. We conclude that despite their lower diversity, highland regions are disproportionally important for maintaining diversity in the adjacent lowlands. The extinction of species in the tropical highlands due to rapid climate change this century could thus have major and long-lasting impacts on global passerine diversity.


2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (7) ◽  
pp. 894-910 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M Vamosi

Understanding the contribution of ecological interactions to the origin and maintenance of diversity is a fundamental challenge for ecologists and evolutionary biologists, and one that is currently receiving a great deal of attention. Natural enemies (e.g., predators, parasites, and herbivores) are ubiquitous in food webs and are predicted to have significant impacts on phenotypic diversity and on speciation, and extinction rates of their prey. Spurred by the development of a theoretical framework beginning in the late 1970s, there is now a growing body of literature that addresses the effects of enemy–prey interactions on the evolution of prey. A number of theoretical models predict that enemies can produce phenotypic divergence between closely related species, even in the absence of interspecific competition for resources. Effects on diversification of prey are more variable, and enemies may either enhance or depress speciation and extinction rates of their prey. Empirical evidences from a number of study systems, notably those involving predators and prey in aquatic environments and interactions between insects and flowering plants, confirm both predictions. There is now considerable evidence for the role of enemies, especially those that are size-selective or use visual cues when identifying suitable prey, on phenotypic divergence of sympatric and allopatric taxa. Enemies may spur diversification rates in certain groups under some circumstances, and hinder diversification rates in other cases. I suggest that further research should focus on the role of enemies in diversification of prey, with significant insights likely to be the product of applying traditional experimental approaches and emerging comparative phylogenetic methods.


Virology ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 160 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Nestorowicz ◽  
Yoshihiro Kawaoka ◽  
William J. Bean ◽  
Robert G. Webster

Author(s):  
Stefan M. M. Goetz ◽  
Glenn Weisfeld ◽  
Samuele Zilioli

Given the pivotal role of differential reproduction to the evolutionary success of ancestral men, evolution has produced a plethora of reproductive strategies aimed at solving the complexities of intramale competition and satisfying and/or thwarting the reproductive desires of women. Life history theory recognizes that an organism has limited resources and must invest energy appropriately. Broadly, reproductive strategies can be dichotomized into short-term (emphasizing mating over parental effort) versus long-term (emphasizing parenting over mating effort) strategies. Increasingly, the neuroendocrine system—especially testosterone—has been recognized as the proximate mechanism orchestrating adoption of one strategy over the other. This chapter reviews behaviors geared toward solving problems associated with both long-term and short-term reproductive strategies and discusses the neuroendocrine correlates. The adoption of one strategy over another is conceptualized as conditional or facultative adaptations in which strategic switching points are tuned over evolutionary time to produce optimal fitness responses to men’s social and physical conditions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernd Lenzner ◽  
Susana Magallón ◽  
Wayne Dawson ◽  
Holger Kreft ◽  
Christian König ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 779-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald R Forsdyke

Abstract Animal gametes unite to form a zygote that develops into an adult with gonads that, in turn, produce gametes. Interruption of this germinal cycle by prezygotic or postzygotic reproductive barriers can result in two cycles, each with the potential to evolve into a new species. When the speciation process is complete, members of each species are fully reproductively isolated from those of the other. During speciation a primary barrier may be supported and eventually superceded by a later-appearing secondary barrier. For those holding certain cases of prezygotic isolation to be primary (e.g. elephant cannot copulate with mouse), the onus is to show that they had not been preceded over evolutionary time by periods of postzygotic hybrid inviability (genically determined) or sterility (genically or chromosomally determined). Likewise, the onus is upon those holding cases of hybrid inviability to be primary (e.g. Dobzhansky–Muller epistatic incompatibilities) to show that they had not been preceded by periods, however brief, of hybrid sterility. The latter, when acting as a sympatric barrier causing reproductive isolation, can only be primary. In many cases, hybrid sterility may result from incompatibilities between parental chromosomes that attempt to pair during meiosis in the gonad of their offspring (Winge-Crowther-Bateson incompatibilities). While such incompatibilities have long been observed on a microscopic scale, there is growing evidence for a role of dispersed finer DNA sequence differences (i.e. in base k-mers).


PLoS ONE ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. e0196375
Author(s):  
Simon Boivin ◽  
Thomas Saucède ◽  
Rémi Laffont ◽  
Emilie Steimetz ◽  
Pascal Neige

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