Many temperate species experienced demographic and range contractions in response to climatic changes during Pleistocene glaciations. In this study, we investigate the evolutionary history of the Tyrrhenian tree frog Hyla sarda, a species inhabiting the Corsica-Sardinia island system (Western Mediterranean basin). We used sequence analysis of two mitochondrial (overall 1229 bp) and three nuclear (overall 1692 bp) gene fragments to assess the phylogeography and demographic history of this species, and species distribution modelling (SDM) to predict its range variation over time. Phylogeographic, historical demographic and SDM analyses consistently indicate that H. sarda does not conform to the scenario generally expected for temperate species but rather underwent demographic and range expansion mostly during the last glacial phase. Palaeogeographic data and SDM analyses suggest that such expansion was driven by the glaciation-induced increase in lowland areas during marine regression. This unusual scenario suggests that at least some temperate species may not have suffered the adverse effects of glacial climate on their population size and range extent, owing to the mitigating effects of other glaciations-induced palaeoenvironmental changes. We discuss previous clues for the occurrence of such a scenario in other species and some possible challenges with its identification. Early phylogeographic literature suggested that responses to the Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles were expected to vary among species and regions. Our results point out that such variation may have been greater than previously thought.
Islands are hotspots of biodiversity, with a disproportionately high fraction of endemic lineages, often of ancient origin. Nevertheless, intra-island phylogeographies are surprisingly scarce, leading to a scanty knowledge about the microevolutionary processes induced on island populations by Plio-Pleistocene climatic oscillations, and the manner in which these processes contributed to shape their current genetic diversity. We investigated the phylogeography, historical demography and species distribution models of the Corsican endemic newt Euproctus montanus (north-western Mediterranean). As for many island endemics, the continuous distribution of E. montanus throughout its range has hitherto been considered as evidence for a single large population, a belief that also guided the species' categorization for conservation purposes. Instead, we found a geographic mosaic of ancient evolutionary lineages, with five main clades of likely Pliocene origin (2.6-5.8 My), all but one restricted to northern Corsica. Moreover, the copresence between main lineages in the same population was limited to a single case. As also suggested by growing literature on intra-island phylogeographic variation, it seems that the extensive use of simplifying assumption on the population structure and historical demography of island populations--both in theoretical and applicative studies--should be carefully reconsidered, a claim that is well exemplified by the case presented here.
Hotspots of genetic diversity are regions of utmost importance for species survival and conservation, and their intimate link with the geographic location of glacial refugia has been well established. Nonetheless, the microevolutionary processes underlying the generation of hotspots in such regions have only recently become a fervent field of research. We investigated the phylogeographic and population genetic structure of the agile frog, Rana dalmatina, within its putative refugium in peninsular Italy. We found this region to harbour far more diversity, phylogeographic structure, and lineages of ancient origin than that by the rest of the species' range in Europe. This pattern appeared to be well explained by climate-driven microevolutionary processes that occurred during both glacial and interglacial epochs. Therefore, the inferred evolutionary history of R. dalmatina in Italy supports a view of glacial refugia as ‘factories' rather than as repositories of genetic diversity, with significant implications for conservation strategies for hotspots.
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