The Relationship Between Global and Regional Distribution Diminishes Among Phylogenetically Basal Species

Abstract

Abstract. Phylogenetic legacy and phylogenetic trends affect the ecology of species-except, apparently, for the width of their distribution. As a result, ''macroecological'' patterns of species distributions emerge constantly in phylogenetically very distinct species assemblages. The width of the global distribution of species, for instance, constantly correlates positively to the width of their regional distribution. However, such patterns primarily reflect the phylogenetically derived species that dominate most assemblages. Basal species, in contrast, might show different macroecological patterns. We tested the hypothesis that the correlation between global and regional distributions of species diminishes among the phylogenetically basal species. We considered central European higher plants and defined global distribution as the occupancy of global floristic zones, regional distribution as the grid occupancy in Eastern Germany, and phylogenetic position as the rank distance to tree base. We also took into account a number of confounding variables. We found that, across all lineages, the global/regional correlation diminished among basal species. We then reanalyzed 19 lineages separately and always found the same pattern. The pattern reflected both increases in global distributions and decreases in regional distributions among basal species. The results indicate that many basal species face a risk of global or at least regional extinction, but have escaped the downward spiral of mutually reinforcing extinction risks at multiple scales. We suggest that many basal species had much time to expand their global ranges but are presently displaced locally by more derived species. Overall, the study shows that macroecological patterns may not be static and universal, but may undergo macroevolutionary trends. Analyses of macroecological patterns across a phylogeny may thus provide insights into macroevolutionary processes.

Microevolutionary, macroevolutionary, ecological and taxonomical implications of punctuational theories of adaptive evolution

“…This agrees with the observed correlation between global and local abundance in young species, but not in old. Old species are probably less competitive in a similarly broad spectrum of biotopes as young species [7]. Class II-V punctuational theories of evolution also predict that the paleontological record will more often show a gradual change from common to rare species rather than the opposite change from rare to common species.…”

Elastic, not plastic species: Frozen plasticity theory and the origin of adaptive evolution in sexually reproducing organisms

“…One asterisk denotes the predictions that have not been intentionally tested but are supported by published data. 1 [57], 2 [58], 3 [59,60], 4 [17], 5 [61], 6 [62], 7 [45], 8 [63,64], 9 [65], 10 [66-68], 11 [69,70]. For explanation see [46] and (Flegr J.: Microevolutionary a macroevolutionary implication of Frozen plasticity theory of adaptive evolution, submitted).…”

Latitudinal Diversity Gradients in New World Bats: Are They a Consequence of Niche Conservatism?

“…We used RD as a proxy of the age of species: a higher number of nodes indicates a more derived taxon (‘clade rank’ in [29]). We obtained RD values from the mammal phylogenetic tree resolved to the species level presented by Bininda-Emonds et al [30], which integrates the Jones et al [31] pre-existing supertree for the Chiroptera.…”

“…These node based MRD values are approximate measures the evolutionary development [29] of the local fauna in each cell of the grid. Even if RD contains no direct information on the ages of taxonomic groups, it is still a useful metric for phylogenies lacking branch lengths [32] because although evolutionary rates may have not been the same in all clades, higher numbers of nodes represent a younger species in the majority of radiation phenomena.…”