Species distribution models (SDM) have been proposed as valuable first screening tools for predicting species responses to new environmental conditions. SDMs are usually conducted at the species ...level, assuming that species-environment relationships are a species-specific feature that do not evolve and show no variability across a species’ range. However, broad environmental tolerances at the species level can encompass narrower and different environmental tolerances for specific lineages or populations. In this study, we evaluate whether SDMs that account for within-taxon niche variation in climate and human-habitat associations provide better fits between projected distributions and real occurrence data for alien bird species than species-level SDMs. Our study focuses on eight alien bird species with established alien populations for which detailed phylogeographic information was available. Similarity in climates and human disturbance conditions occupied by different phylogenetic groups within species was low and not greater than random expectations. Accounting for intraspecific niche variation in SDMs modified the distribution and extent of suitable habitat predicted as susceptible to invasion, but did not result in more accurate model predictions in alien ranges. Until more accurate information on intraspecific variability is available, species-level models can be reasonable candidates. When phylogeographic information is available, the use of the most conservative criterion (i.e. to model both species and lineages on the basis of the actual range) is recommended.
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•Standing and running water habitats exhibit similar diversification patterns.•Contrary to expected, lotic habitats are not acting as evolutionary dead-ends.•A strong phylogenetic ...signal was recovered for habitat preference in Hydroporini.
The long-term geological stability of aquatic habitats has been demonstrated to be a determinant in the evolution of macroinvertebrate fauna, with species in running (lotic) waters having lower dispersal abilities, smaller ranges and higher gene flow between populations than species in standing (lentic) environments. Lotic species have been hypothesized to be more specialised, but the diversification dynamics of both habitat types have not been studied in detail. Using a speciose lineage of water beetles we test here whether diversification rates are related to the habitat preference of the species and its consequences on turnover, which we expect to be higher for lotic taxa. Moreover, we tested whether life in lotic environments is acting as an evolutionary dead-end as it is considered an ecological specialisation. We built a comprehensive molecular phylogeny with 473 terminals representing 421 of the 689 known species of the tribe Hydroporini (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae), using a combination of sequences from four mitochondrial and two nuclear genes plus 69 mitogenomes obtained with NGS. We found a general pattern of gradual acceleration of diversification rate with time, with 2–3 significant diversification shifts. However, habitat is not the main factor driving diversification in Hydroporini based on SecSSE analyses. The most recent common ancestor of Hydroporini was reconstructed as a lotic species, with multiple shifts to lentic environments. Most frequent transitions were estimated from lentic and lotic habitats to the category “both”, followed by transitions from lotic to lentic and lentic to lotic respectively, although with very similar rates. Contrary to expectations, we found little evidence for differences in diversification dynamics between habitats, with lotic environments clearly not acting as evolutionary dead-ends in Hydroporini.
Aim: Current geographical distributions in conjunction with species-level phylogenies have been viewed as offering an enormous potential for investigating the causes of speciation. However, many ...authors have concluded that species ranges are too dynamic to retain the historical signal of the speciation processes. We develop an approach to explore the extent to which range changes have erased the geographical signal of speciation in the current distribution of species lineages, and whether phylogenetic relationships among species and their current distributions can provide information regarding the geography of diversification. As case studies we used different lineages of aquatic Coleoptera. Location: Western Palaearctic. Methods: We first assessed the persistence of a geographical signal in the current distribution of a clade from the association between evolutionary relationships and geography using Mantel tests. We then tested two potential scenarios of diversification using bivariate plots of the geographical distance between the centroids of the species ranges and phylogenetic distances, and an assessment of the match between the observed geographical distribution and the phylogenetic topology. We used as a study system a set of 10 monophyletic lineages of water beetles with different ecological characteristics (either standing water, running water or a mixture of both habitat types). Results: Our results point to a common pattern of geographically conserved ranges where current species seem to have originated through range fragmentation of formerly more widespread species. Exclusive standing water clades showed a much weaker signal, as expected from their higher mobility, which erases the geographical signal at much shorter temporal scales. Main conclusions: Overall, our findings show that for at least some lineages it is possible to obtain strong evidence of stasis of the geographical ranges of species, as well as information regarding the diversification process, through the study of their current distributions and phylogenetic relationships.
Why some species are widespread while others are very restricted geographically is one of the most basic questions in biology, although it remains largely unanswered. This is particularly the case ...for groups of closely related species, which often display large differences in the size of the geographical range despite sharing many other factors due to their common phylogenetic inheritance. We used ten lineages of aquatic Coleoptera from the western Palearctic to test in a comparative framework a broad set of possible determinants of range size: species' age, differences in ecological tolerance, dispersal ability and geographic location.
When all factors were combined in multiple regression models between 60-98% of the variance was explained by geographic location and phylogenetic signal. Maximum latitudinal and longitudinal limits were positively correlated with range size, with species at the most northern latitudes and eastern longitudes displaying the largest ranges. In lineages with lotic and lentic species, the lentic (better dispersers) display larger distributional ranges than the lotic species (worse dispersers). The size of the geographical range was also positively correlated with the extent of the biomes in which the species is found, but we did not find evidence of a clear relationship between range size and age of the species.
Our findings show that range size of a species is shaped by an interplay of geographic and ecological factors, with a phylogenetic component affecting both of them. The understanding of the factors that determine the size and geographical location of the distributional range of species is fundamental to the study of the origin and assemblage of the current biota. Our results show that for this purpose the most relevant data may be the phylogenetic history of the species and its geographical location.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Recently, the European Commission adopted a new strategy to halt the loss of biodiversity. Member states are expected to favor a more effective collection and redistribution of European Union (EU) ...funds under the current Multiannual Financial Framework for 2014-2020. Because of the large spatial variation in the distribution of biodiversity and conservation needs at the continental scale, EU instruments should ensure that countries with higher biodiversity values get more funds and resources for the conservation than other countries. Using linear regressions, we assessed the association between conservation investments and biodiversity values across member states, accounting for a variety of conservation investment indicators, taxonomic groups (including groups of plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates), and indicators of biodiversity value. In general, we found clear overall associations between conservation investments and biodiversity variables. However, some countries received more or less investment than would be expected based on biodiversity values in those countries. We also found that the extensive use of birds as unique indicators of conservation effectiveness may lead to biased decisions. Our results can inform future decisions regarding funding allocation and thus improve distribution of EU conservation funds. Recientemente, la Comisión Europea adoptó una nueva estrategia para detener la pérdida de la biodiversidad. Se espera que los países miembros favorezcan una redistribución más efectiva de los fondos de la Unión Europea (UE) bajo el Marco de Trabajo Financiero Multianual para 2014 - 2020. Debido a la gran variación espacial en la distribución de las necesidades de la biodiversidad y la conservación a escala continental, los instrumentos de la UE deberían asegurar que los países con valores más altos de biodiversidad obtengan más fondos y recursos para la conservación que otros países. Evaluamos la asociación entre las inversiones en conservación y los valores de biodiversidad en todos los países miembros mediante el uso de regresiones lineales, representando a una variedad de indicadores de inversión en conservación, grupos taxonómicos (incluyendo grupos de plantas, vertebrados e invertebrados) e indicadores del valor de la biodiversidad. En general, encontramos asociaciones generales claras entre las inversiones en conservación y las variables de biodiversidad. Sin embargo, algunos países recibieron más o menos inversión de lo que se esperaría en base a sus valores de biodiversidad. También encontramos que el uso extensivo de las aves como indicadores únicos de la efectividad de la conservación podría llevar a decisiones sesgadas. Nuestros resultados pueden informar las futuras decisiones con respecto a la asignación de financiamiento y así mejorar la distribución de los fondos de conservación de la UE.
Understanding factors driving successful invasions is one of the cornerstones of invasion biology. Bird invasions have been frequently used as study models, and the foundation of current knowledge ...largely relies on species purposefully introduced during the 19th and early 20th centuries in countries colonized by Europeans. However, the profile of exotic bird species has changed radically in the last decades, as birds are now mostly introduced into the invasion process through unplanned releases from the worldwide pet and avicultural trade. Here we assessed the role of the three main drivers of invasion success (i.e., event-, species-, and location-level factors) on the establishment and spatial spread of exotic birds using an unprecedented dataset recorded throughout the last 100 y in the Iberian Peninsula. Our multimodel inference phylogenetic approach showed that the barriers that need to be overcome by a species to successfully establish or spread are not the same. Whereas establishment is largely related to event-level factors, apparently stochastic features of the introduction (time since first introduction and propagule pressure) and to the origin of introduced species (wild-caught species show higher invasiveness than captive-bred ones), the spread across the invaded region seems to be determined by the extent to which climatic conditions in the new region resemble those of the species’ native range. Overall, these results contrast with what we learned from successful deliberate introductions and highlight that different management interventions should apply at different invasion stages, the most efficient strategies being related to event-level factors.
International wildlife trade is a major source of current biological invasions. However, the power of trade regulations to reduce invasion risks at large, continental scales has not been empirically ...assessed. The European wild bird trade ban was implemented in 2005 to counter the spread of the avian flu. We tested whether the ban reduced invasion risk in two European countries, where 398 nonnative bird species were introduced into the wild from 1912 to 2015. The number of newly introduced species per year increased exponentially until 2005 (in parallel with the volume of wild bird importations), and then sharply decreased in subsequent years. Interestingly, a rapid trade shift from wild‐caught birds to captive‐bred birds, which have lower invasive potential than wild‐caught birds, allowed the maintenance of bird availability in markets. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of a trade ban for preventing biological invasions without impacting the ability to meet societal demands.
•A new approach is proposed to assess the effectiveness of protected areas (PA).•Null models are used to identify over and under-represented species.•We test how well European herpetofauna is ...represented by two PA networks.•Most of these species were not better represented than expected by chance.
One of the main issues in conservation biology is assessing how much biodiversity is currently represented in protected areas (PA). Traditional approaches such as ‘gap analysis’ require the choice of arbitrary targets and thresholds that can greatly influence the obtained results. We present here a complementary approach that avoids typical methodological uncertainties being particularly useful when the aim is to explore differences in the effectiveness of PA networks in representing species with distinct features and varying range sizes. Firstly, we calculated how far the distribution of a species overlaps with a network. Then, null models were used to test if this value is significantly different from random expectations (i.e. compared with random species of the same number of occurrences), which allowed over and under-represented species to be identified. Using this approach, we aimed to determine how well amphibian and terrestrial reptile species in Europe were represented by two protected area networks: nationally designated protected areas (NPAs) and the Natura 2000 network (N2000). We also tested to see if there were any differences in species representation depending upon their conservation status, range size and distribution type. Although N2000 is more effective than NPAs, both PA networks performed poorly in representing European amphibians and reptiles, as the level of representativeness for most species (excepting reptiles in N2000) within these networks was either not significantly different or significantly lower than expected by chance. A combination of this approach with traditional gap analyses could provide valuable information to improve the future effectiveness of PAs.
Protected area networks represent one of the mainstays of worldwide conservation policies and play a key role in the protection of biodiversity. While numerous studies have evaluated the extent to ...which reserves fulfil their role of protecting biodiversity (so called ‘gap analysis’) in Europe at national and subnational scales, their performance across the whole of Europe has seldom been assessed. Here we assess the effectiveness of nationally designated protected areas and the pan-European Natura 2000 network in representing and maintaining over time European amphibian and reptile biodiversity using a comprehensive and newly available species occurrence dataset. Overall, our results show that often national protected areas and Natura 2000 sites perform poorly in representing amphibians and reptiles, but highlight differences in the effectiveness of both protected area networks when the goal is to promote the persistence of the species. While nationally designated areas did not usually cover more species than a random selection of areas for both vertebrate groups across different conservation targets, Natura 2000 network usually covered significantly more species than random when the goal was to include multiple representations of each species. In any case, these covered species were mostly widespread taxa, while narrow-range species remained under-represented. Additionally, our findings provide important evidence of the need to assess sensitivity of reserve effectiveness assessments to data and decision-rules, as the effectiveness of both reserve networks varied greatly across the different thresholds used for assigning reserves to grid cells and the criteria used to consider species as covered.
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