Evolutionary Macroecology and the Geographical Patterns of Neotropical Diversification

Villalobos, Fabricio; Pinto‐Ledezma, Jesús N.; Diniz‐Filho, José Alexandre Felizola

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-31167-4_5

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…To account for the phylogenetic uncertainty associated with diversification estimates, we repeated the DR and BAMM analyses for each sample tree and averaged the 100 iterations. To obtain the estimates of present‐day regional diversification, we rasterized the evolutionary variables by averaging the diversification rates of species that occurred within the grid cell (i.e., assemblage‐based approach; Villalobos et al, 2020). We confirmed that the set‐ups using BAMM and DR produced mutually consistent geographical results (Supporting Information Figures S29‐S43) and were highly correlated (Supporting Information Figure S43).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exceptions to the rule: Relative roles of time, diversification rates and regional energy in shaping the inverse latitudinal diversity gradient

Cerezer

Macháč

Rangel

et al. 2022

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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Aim: Inverse latitudinal diversity gradients (i-LDGs), whereby regional richness peaks outside the tropics, have rarely been investigated, and their causes remain unclear.Here, we investigate three prominent explanations, postulating that species-rich regions have had: (1) longer time to accumulate species; (2) faster diversification; and(3) more energy to support species-rich communities. These mechanisms have been shown to explain the tropical megadiversity, and we examine whether they can also explain i-LDG. Location: Global.Time period: Contemporary.Major taxa studied: Amphibians, birds and mammals. Methods:We estimated the time for species accumulation, regional diversification rates and regional energy for six tetrapod taxa (c. 800 species). We quantified the relative effects and interactions among these three classes of variables, using variance partitioning, and confirmed the results across alternative metrics for time (community phylometrics and BioGeoBeARS), diversification rates (BAMM and DR) and regional energy (past and current temperature, and productivity).Results: Although regional richness across each of the six taxa peaked in the temperate region, it varied markedly across hemispheres and continents. The effects of time, diversification rates and regional energy varied greatly from one taxon to another, but high diversification rates generally emerged as the best predictor of high regional richness. The effects of time and regional energy were limited, with the exception of salamanders and cetaceans.Main conclusions: Together, our results indicate that the causes of i-LDG are highly taxon specific. Consequently, large-scale richness gradients might not have a universal explanation, and different causal pathways might converge on similar gradients. Moreover, regional diversification rates might vary dramatically between similar environments and, depending on the taxon, regional richness might or might not depend

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exceptions to the rule: Relative roles of time, diversification rates and regional energy in shaping the inverse latitudinal diversity gradient

Cerezer

Macháč

Rangel

et al. 2022

Global Ecol. Biogeogr.

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“…BAMM and BAMMtools R package to multiple regions. Despite methodological advances in both approaches, a challenge remains unsolved in macroecological research-the simultaneous modeling of evolutionary rates across spatial and temporal scales in macroecological research (Velasco et al, 2020;Villalobos et al, 2020).…”

Section: Diversitree R Package Bamm (Bayesian Analysis Of Macroevolut...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We aim to evaluate whether these metrics can capture species diversification and biogeographic processes that ultimately shape the geographical gradients of species diversity. Given the extensive literature on this topic, we only focused on a specific set of phylogenetic metrics that have been used extensively in the macroecological literature (Villalobos et al, 2020; Table 1). Additional phylogenetic metrics used in community ecology and conservation have been the focus of other reviews (e.g., Miller et al, 2017;Tucker et al, 2017), and are not reviewed here.…”

Section: Diversitree R Package Bamm (Bayesian Analysis Of Macroevolut...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Macroecological studies mainly use two approaches to link species diversification rates with geographical gradients of biodiversity (Hawkins et al, 2003;Algar et al, 2009;Qian et al, 2015;Villalobos et al, 2020;García-Rodríguez et al, 2021a,b). The first approach relies on the use of phylogenetic metrics that seek to capture a geographical signature of species diversification dynamics (Diniz-Filho et al, 2013;Fritz et al, 2013; Table 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mapping species diversification metrics in macroecology: Prospects and challenges

Velasco

Pinto‐Ledezma²

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The intersection of macroecology and macroevolution is one of today’s most active research in biology. In the last decade, we have witnessed a steady increment of macroecological studies that use metrics attempting to capture macroevolutionary processes to explain present-day biodiversity patterns. Evolutionary explanations of current species richness gradients are fundamental for understanding how diversity accumulates in a region. Although multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain the patterns we observe in nature, it is well-known that the present-day diversity patterns result from speciation, extinction, colonization from nearby areas, or a combination of these macroevolutionary processes. Whether these metrics capture macroevolutionary processes across space is unknown. Some tip-rate metrics calculated directly from a phylogenetic tree (e.g., mean root distance -MRD-; mean diversification rate -mDR-) seem to return very similar geographical patterns regardless of how they are estimated (e.g., using branch lengths explicitly or not). Model-based tip-rate metrics —those estimated using macroevolutionary mixtures, e.g., the BAMM approach— seem to provide better net diversification estimates than only speciation rates. We argue that the lack of appropriate estimates of extinction and dispersal rates in phylogenetic trees may strongly limit our inferences about how species richness gradients have emerged at spatial and temporal scales. Here, we present a literature review about this topic and empirical comparisons between select taxa with several of these metrics. We implemented a simple null model approach to evaluate whether mapping of these metrics deviates from a random sampling process. We show that phylogenetic metrics by themselves are relatively poor at capturing speciation, extinction, and dispersal processes across geographical gradients. Furthermore, we provide evidence of how parametric biogeographic methods can improve our inference of past events and, therefore, our conclusions about the evolutionary processes driving biodiversity patterns. We recommend that further studies include several approaches simultaneously (e.g., spatial diversification modeling, parametric biogeographic methods, simulations) to disentangle the relative role of speciation, extinction, and dispersal in the generation and maintenance of species richness gradients at regional and global scales.

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“…Overall, the significant phylogenetic structure observed mainly in Mesoamerica and Caatinga together with the lack of a relationship between these patterns and climatic stability since the LGM highlight the role of evolutionary and biogeographic processes that occurred beyond this time period in driving current SDTF diversity patterns. Testing the effect of such processes requires spatially explicit estimates of speciation, extinction and dispersal rates as well as their temporal variation that are beyond the scope of this study but that can be assessed with recent methods (Villalobos et al, 2020).…”

Section: And Thementioning

confidence: 99%

The phylogenetic diversity and structure of the seasonally dry forests in the Neotropics

Arango

Villalobos

Prieto‐Torres

et al. 2020

Journal of Biogeography

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AimExceptions to the quasi‐ubiquitous latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) have been poorly studied. A reverse LDG, when species richness (SR) increases away from the Equator, has been suggested for several taxa and entire biomes. The Neotropical seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTF) are a well‐known example of a reverse LDG that could be caused by the climatic stability of Pleistocene Refugia and dispersion from distinct source areas. Here, we test these predictions under a spatial and phylogenetic framework.LocationNeotropics.TaxonWoody plants.MethodsWe used a recent species‐level seed plant phylogeny and the DRYFLOR dataset to evaluate the geographic patterns of phylogenetic diversity (PD) and structure of woody plant assemblages associated with the Neotropical SDTFs. We conducted spatial regressions to test the effect of climatic instability since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) on assemblages’ residual PD (controlling for SR) and null model analysis to evaluate their phylogenetic structure using the Net Relatedness Index.ResultsPhylogenetic diversity of the Neotropical SDTFs increased away from the Equator, likely driven by SR. This pattern was not related to climatic instability since the LGM. Phylogenetic structure of SDTF assemblages showed considerable spatial patterning, with significant phylogenetic clustering in the Mesoamerica and Caatinga regions.Main conclusionThe reverse latitudinal SR gradient of the Neotropical SDTF assemblages is mirrored by their PD. Phylogenetic history seems to have influenced such patterns differently across the Neotropics with no relationship to climatic stability since the LGM, where particular SDTF nuclei previously suggested as Pleistocene refugia served as cradles and source areas for the current diversity pattern of the biome.

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Evolutionary Macroecology and the Geographical Patterns of Neotropical Diversification

Cited by 7 publications

References 83 publications

Exceptions to the rule: Relative roles of time, diversification rates and regional energy in shaping the inverse latitudinal diversity gradient

Exceptions to the rule: Relative roles of time, diversification rates and regional energy in shaping the inverse latitudinal diversity gradient

Mapping species diversification metrics in macroecology: Prospects and challenges

The phylogenetic diversity and structure of the seasonally dry forests in the Neotropics

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