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High proportion of smaller ranged hummingbird species coincides with ecological specialization across the Americas.

ABSTRACT: Ecological communities that experience stable climate conditions have been speculated to preserve more specialized interspecific associations and have higher proportions of smaller ranged species (SRS). Thus, areas with disproportionally large numbers of SRS are expected to coincide geographically with a high degree of community-level ecological specialization, but this suggestion remains poorly supported with empirical evidence. Here, we analysed data for hummingbird resource specialization, range size, contemporary climate, and Late Quaternary climate stability for 46 hummingbird-plant mutualistic networks distributed across the Americas, representing 130 hummingbird species (ca 40% of all hummingbird species). We demonstrate a positive relationship between the proportion of SRS of hummingbirds and community-level specialization, i.e. the division of the floral niche among coexisting hummingbird species. This relationship remained strong even when accounting for climate, furthermore, the effect of SRS on specialization was far stronger than the effect of specialization on SRS, suggesting that climate largely influences specialization through species' range-size dynamics. Irrespective of the exact mechanism involved, our results indicate that communities consisting of higher proportions of SRS may be vulnerable to disturbance not only because of their small geographical ranges, but also because of their high degree of specialization.

SUBMITTER: Sonne J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4760165 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High proportion of smaller ranged hummingbird species coincides with ecological specialization across the Americas.

Sonne Jesper J Martín González Ana M AM Maruyama Pietro K PK Sandel Brody B Vizentin-Bugoni Jeferson J Schleuning Matthias M Abrahamczyk Stefan S Alarcón Ruben R Araujo Andréa C AC Araújo Francielle P FP Mendes de Azevedo Severino S Baquero Andrea C AC Cotton Peter A PA Ingversen Tanja Toftemark TT Kohler Glauco G Lara Carlos C Guedes Las-Casas Flor Maria FM Machado Adriana O AO Machado Caio Graco CG Maglianesi María Alejandra MA Moura Alan Cerqueira AC Nogués-Bravo David D Oliveira Genilda M GM Oliveira Paulo E PE Ornelas Juan Francisco JF Rodrigues Licléia da Cruz Lda C Rosero-Lasprilla Liliana L Rui Ana Maria AM Sazima Marlies M Timmermann Allan A Varassin Isabela Galarda IG Wang Zhiheng Z Watts Stella S Fjeldså Jon J Svenning Jens-Christian JC Rahbek Carsten C Dalsgaard Bo B

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20160201 1824

Ecological communities that experience stable climate conditions have been speculated to preserve more specialized interspecific associations and have higher proportions of smaller ranged species (SRS). Thus, areas with disproportionally large numbers of SRS are expected to coincide geographically with a high degree of community-level ecological specialization, but this suggestion remains poorly supported with empirical evidence. Here, we analysed data for hummingbird resource specialization, ra ...[more]

PMID: 26842573

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Project description:BackgroundThe bushbuck, Tragelaphus scriptus, is a widespread and ecologically diverse ungulate species complex within the spiral-horned antelopes. This species was recently found to consist of two genetically divergent but monophyletic lineages, which are paraphyletic at mitochondrial (mt)DNA owing to an ancient interspecific hybridization event. The Scriptus lineage (T. s. scriptus) inhabits the north-western half of the African continent while Sylvaticus (T. s. sylvaticus) is found in the south-eastern half. Here we test hypotheses of historical demography and adaptation in bushbuck using a higher-resolution framework, with four nuclear (MGF, PRKCI, SPTBN, and THY) and three new mitochondrial markers (cytochrome b, 12S rRNA, and 16S rRNA).MethodsGenealogies were reconstructed for the mitochondrial and nuclear data sets, with the latter dated using fossil calibration points. We also inferred the demographic history of Scriptus and Sylvaticus using coalescent-based methods. To obtain an overview of the origins and ancestral colonisation routes of ancestral bushbuck sequences across geographic space, we conducted discrete Bayesian phylogeographic and statistical dispersal-vicariance analyses on our nuclear DNA data set.ResultsBoth nuclear DNA and mtDNA support previous findings of two genetically divergent Sylvaticus and Scriptus lineages. The three mtDNA loci confirmed 15 of the previously defined haplogroups, including those with convergent phenotypes. However, the nuclear tree showed less phylogenetic resolution at the more derived parts of the genealogy, possibly due to incomplete lineage sorting of the slower evolving nuclear genome. The only exception to this was the montane Menelik's bushbuck (Sylvaticus) of the Ethiopian highlands, which formed a monophyletic group at three of four nuclear DNA loci. We dated the coalescence of the two lineages to a common ancestor ∼2.54 million years ago. Both marker sets revealed similar demographic histories of constant population size over time. We show that the bushbuck likely originated in East Africa, with Scriptus dispersing to colonise suitable habitats west of the African Rift and Sylvaticus radiating from east of the Rift into southern Africa via a series of mainly vicariance events.DiscussionDespite lower levels of genetic structure at nuclear loci, we confirmed the independent evolution of the Menelik's bushbuck relative to the phenotypically similar montane bushbuck in East Africa, adding further weight to previous suggestions of convergent evolution within the bushbuck complex. Perhaps the most surprising result of our analysis was that both Scriptus and Sylvaticus populations remained relatively constant throughout the Pleistocene, which is remarkable given that this was a period of major climatic and tectonic change in Africa, and responsible for driving the evolution of much of the continent's extant large mammalian diversity.

Dataset Information

High proportion of smaller ranged hummingbird species coincides with ecological specialization across the Americas.

Publications

High proportion of smaller ranged hummingbird species coincides with ecological specialization across the Americas.

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