Relating environmental change and species stability in Late Ordovician seas

Stigall, Alycia L.; Brame, Hannah-Maria R.

doi:10.1080/11035897.2013.852619

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Analyses of niche similarity based on Schoener's D statistic further support the interpretation of generally stable environmental niches during the pre‐invasion interval. This pattern of high fidelity habitat tracking was present among all clades, feeding styles, and at both the species and genus level (Stigall and Brame ). The monolithic response across the invertebrate community supports the concept that species are typically able to accommodate low amplitude gradual abiotic environmental changes without recourse to adaptive responses.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

When and how do species achieve niche stability over long time scales?

Stigall

2014

Ecography

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Niche conservation is not ubiquitous among all species or all environmental changes. Identifying the underlying basis for variable species responses is important for conservation efforts and macroevolutionary theory and requires comparing multiple clades and types of environmental change. To examine this issue, niche stability was analyzed for a phylogenetically diverse suite of invertebrates that inhabited the epicontinental seas of eastern North America during the Late Ordovician Period (∼450 Ma). These taxa experienced fluctuating sea level and a regional biotic invasion event, the Richmondian invasion, during nine time slices spanning approximately three million years. Niche models were generated with Maxent and niche stability was assessed via geographic overlap, niche similarity, and environmental parameters. These taxa exhibited high fidelity habitat tracking and stable ecological niches during the pre‐invasion interval characterized by gradual sea‐level changes, whereas taxa exhibited statistically lower niche stability and more niche evolution during and after the Richmondian invasion. Conversely, environmental parameter similarity between niche models of adjacent time slices was lowest during the pre‐invasion interval and increased following the Richmondian invasion. Declining niche similarity and geographic stability coincident with increasing environmental parameter similarity indicates ecological niche change resulted from contracting species' realized niches to a subset of the original fundamental niche dimensions rather than shifting to new ecospace. Niche contraction is interpreted as a response to increased competition from invasive species, which may have arisen from adaptation, sorting (differential birth and death processes) and/or ecological fitting. These results indicate that consideration of multiple hierarchical levels, temporal scales and ecological contexts will yield new insights into the processes that generate both macroevolutionary and ecological patterns. They also suggest the widely employed assumption of niche conservatism through time and space may be more frequently valid for intervals of gradual abiotic change than for biotic changes caused by invasive species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

When and how do species achieve niche stability over long time scales?

Stigall

2014

Ecography

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“…Environmental niche modeling (ENM), also referred as to predictive habitat distribution modeling (e.g., Guisan & Zimmermann, 2000 ), or species distribution modeling (e.g., Elith & Leathwick, 2009 ; Miller, 2010 ), is a common technique increasingly used in a variety of disciplines interested in the geographical distribution of species. ENMs have been used, among other disciplines, in landscape ecology ( Amici et al, 2015 ), biogeography ( Carvalho & Lama, 2015 ), conservation biology ( Bernardes et al, 2013 ; Brambilla et al, 2013 ), marine sciences ( Bouchet & Meeuwig, 2015 ; Crafton, 2015 ), paleontology ( Stigall & Brame, 2014 ), plant ecology ( Gelviz-Gelvez et al, 2015 ), public health ( Ceccarelli & Rabinovich, 2015 ) and restoration ecology ( Fernández & Morales, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MaxEnt’s parameter configuration and small samples: are we paying attention to recommendations? A systematic review

Morales

Fernández

Baca-González

2017

PeerJ

334

267

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Environmental niche modeling (ENM) is commonly used to develop probabilistic maps of species distribution. Among available ENM techniques, MaxEnt has become one of the most popular tools for modeling species distribution, with hundreds of peer-reviewed articles published each year. MaxEnt’s popularity is mainly due to the use of a graphical interface and automatic parameter configuration capabilities. However, recent studies have shown that using the default automatic configuration may not be always appropriate because it can produce non-optimal models; particularly when dealing with a small number of species presence points. Thus, the recommendation is to evaluate the best potential combination of parameters (feature classes and regularization multiplier) to select the most appropriate model. In this work we reviewed 244 articles published between 2013 and 2015 to assess whether researchers are following recommendations to avoid using the default parameter configuration when dealing with small sample sizes, or if they are using MaxEnt as a “black box tool.” Our results show that in only 16% of analyzed articles authors evaluated best feature classes, in 6.9% evaluated best regularization multipliers, and in a meager 3.7% evaluated simultaneously both parameters before producing the definitive distribution model. We analyzed 20 articles to quantify the potential differences in resulting outputs when using software default parameters instead of the alternative best model. Results from our analysis reveal important differences between the use of default parameters and the best model approach, especially in the total area identified as suitable for the assessed species and the specific areas that are identified as suitable by both modelling approaches. These results are worrying, because publications are potentially reporting over-complex or over-simplistic models that can undermine the applicability of their results. Of particular importance are studies used to inform policy making. Therefore, researchers, practitioners, reviewers and editors need to be very judicious when dealing with MaxEnt, particularly when the modelling process is based on small sample sizes.

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“…The case study examines the C3, C4, and C5 sequences. Modified from Stigall and Brame (2014) invaders occupied large geographic areas;…”

Section: Range Size Survivorship and Speciation Modementioning

confidence: 99%