The relationships between species age and range size

Abstract

Species range size is a central topic in macroecology, biogeography and conservation biology. Species age has been frequently regarded as a contributor to range size in previous studies on range size, but this has rarely been specifically examined. Using global data from four living terrestrial vertebrate classes (birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians) as a case study, we examine how species range size might be related to species age at a global scale. We found statistically significant positive, albeit weak, species age–range size relationships for all four species groups. However, although the age–range relationships were positive, species with young ages had very different range sizes (both large and small), and those with very old ages always had small ranges. The observed age–range relationships were more complex than expected. The weak, rather than strong, species age–range relationships could be because our data set included all living species with different stages of their life spans (durations) that are either expanding or fluctuating or contracting, which would necessarily have minimized or cancelled species age–range relationship when all species in a group are considered collectively. Our findings shed new light on temporal dimension and macroecological correlates of species ranges.

Previously unmeasured genetic diversity explains part of Lewontin’s paradox in a k-mer-based meta-analysis of 112 plant species

“…S6). Although we were not able to control for some important covariates, such as ploidy levels, due to a dearth of data, other components of life history [Romiguier et al, 2014], and geographical context [Willis, 1922, Guo et al, 2024, our study is still the largest reanalysis of population-level sequencing data in plants that we know of to date. The availability of our workflow also makes it easy for our study to be extended as more population-level sequencing data is released.…”