Microbial ecologists and systematists are challenged to discover the early ecological changes that drive the splitting of one bacterial population into two ecologically distinct populations. We have aimed to identify newly divergent lineages ("ecotypes") bearing the dynamic properties attributed to species, with the rationale that discovering their ecological differences would reveal the ecological dimensions of speciation. To this end, we have sampled bacteria from the Bacillus subtilis-Bacillus licheniformis clade from sites differing in solar exposure and soil texture within a Death Valley canyon. Within this clade, we hypothesized ecotype demarcations based on DNA sequence diversity, through analysis of the clade's evolutionary history by Ecotype Simulation (ES) and AdaptML. Ecotypes so demarcated were found to be significantly different in their associations with solar exposure and soil texture, suggesting that these and covarying environmental parameters are among the dimensions of ecological divergence for newly divergent Bacillus ecotypes. Fatty acid composition appeared to contribute to ecotype differences in temperature adaptation, since those ecotypes with more warm-adapting fatty acids were isolated more frequently from sites with greater solar exposure. The recognized species and subspecies of the B. subtilis-B. licheniformis clade were found to be nearly identical to the ecotypes demarcated by ES, with a few exceptions where a recognized taxon is split at most into three putative ecotypes. Nevertheless, the taxa recognized do not appear to encompass the full ecological diversity of the B. subtilis-B. licheniformis clade: ES and AdaptML identified several newly discovered clades as ecotypes that are distinct from any recognized taxon.

The relationship between near-infrared reflectance at 800 nm (NIRR) from leaves and characteristics of leaf structure known to affect photosynthesis was investigated in 48 species of alpine angiosperms. This wavelength was selected to discriminate the effects of leaf structure vs. chemical or water content on leaf reflectance. A quantitative model was first constructed correlating NIRR with leaf structural characteristics for six species, and then validated using all 48 species. Among the structural characteristics tested in the reflectance model were leaf trichome density, the presence or absence of both leaf bicoloration and a thick leaf cuticle (Ͼ1 m), leaf thickness, the ratio of palisade mesophyll to spongy mesophyll thickness (PM/SM), the proportion of the mesophyll occupied by intercellular air spaces (%IAS), and the ratio of mesophyll cell surface area exposed to IAS (A mes ) per unit leaf surface area (A), or A mes /A. Multiple regression analysis showed that measured NIRR was highly correlated with A mes /A, leaf bicoloration, and the presence of a thick leaf cuticle (r 2 ϭ 0.93). In contrast, correlations between NIRR and leaf trichome density, leaf thickness, the PM/SM ratio, or %IAS were relatively weak (r 2 Ͻ 0.25). A model incorporating A mes /A, leaf bicoloration, and cuticle thickness predicted NIRR accurately for 48 species (r 2 ϭ 0.43; P Ͻ 0.01) and may be useful for linking remotely sensed data to plant structure and function.

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