Premium
Testing the role of ecology and life history in structuring genetic variation across a landscape: a trait‐based phylogeographic approach
Author(s) -
Paz Andrea,
Ibáñez Roberto,
Lips Karen R.,
Crawford Andrew J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.13275
Subject(s) - phylogeography , biology , approximate bayesian computation , ecology , trait , evolutionary biology , genetic structure , range (aeronautics) , genetic variation , divergence (linguistics) , variation (astronomy) , phylogenetics , population , genetics , linguistics , philosophy , demography , materials science , sociology , gene , computer science , composite material , programming language , physics , astrophysics
Hypotheses to explain phylogeographic structure traditionally invoke geographic features, but often fail to provide a general explanation for spatial patterns of genetic variation. Organisms' intrinsic characteristics might play more important roles than landscape features in determining phylogeographic structure. We developed a novel comparative approach to explore the role of ecological and life‐history variables in determining spatial genetic variation and tested it on frog communities in P anama. We quantified spatial genetic variation within 31 anuran species based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, for which hierarchical approximate B ayesian computation analyses rejected simultaneous divergence over a common landscape. Regressing ecological variables, on genetic divergence allowed us to test the importance of individual variables revealing that body size, current landscape resistance, geographic range, biogeographic origin and reproductive mode were significant predictors of spatial genetic variation. Our results support the idea that phylogeographic structure represents the outcome of an interaction between organisms and their environment, and suggest a conceptual integration we refer to as trait‐based phylogeography.