Absence of population structure across elevational gradients despite large phenotypic variation in mountain chickadees (Poecile gambeli).

ABSTRACT: Montane habitats are characterized by predictably rapid heterogeneity along elevational gradients and are useful for investigating the consequences of environmental heterogeneity for local adaptation and population genetic structure. Food-caching mountain chickadees inhabit a continuous elevation gradient in the Sierra Nevada, and birds living at harsher, high elevations have better spatial memory ability and exhibit differences in male song structure and female mate preference compared to birds inhabiting milder, low elevations. While high elevation birds breed, on average, two weeks later than low elevation birds, the extent of gene flow between elevations is unknown. Despite phenotypic variation and indirect evidence for local adaptation, population genetic analyses based on 18 073 sing

SUBMITTER: Branch CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5383859 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature