scholarly journals A latitudinal gradient in rates of evolution of avian syllable diversity and song length

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1712) ◽  
pp. 1713-1720 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason T. Weir ◽  
David Wheatcroft
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
New World ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Passerine Bird ◽  
Evolutionary Rates ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Rates Of Evolution ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
The Tropics

We ask whether rates of evolution in traits important for reproductive isolation vary across a latitudinal gradient, by quantifying evolutionary rates of two traits important for pre-mating isolation—avian syllable diversity and song length. We analyse over 2500 songs from 116 pairs of closely related New World passerine bird taxa to show that evolutionary rates for the two main groups of passerines—oscines and suboscines—doubled with latitude in both groups for song length. For syllable diversity, oscines (who transmit song culturally) evolved more than 20 times faster at high latitudes than in low latitudes, whereas suboscines (whose songs are innate in most species and who possess very simple song with few syllable types) show no clear latitudinal gradient in rate. Evolutionary rates in oscines and suboscines were similar at tropical latitudes for syllable complexity as well as for song length. These results suggest that evolutionary rates in traits important to reproductive isolation and speciation are influenced by latitude and have been fastest, not in the tropics where species diversity is highest, but towards the poles.

scholarly journals Character displacement drives trait divergence in a continental fauna

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (20) ◽  
pp. e2021209118
Author(s):  
Sean A. S. Anderson ◽  
Jason T. Weir
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Species Interactions ◽  
New World ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Character Displacement ◽  
Sympatric Species ◽  
Closely Related Species ◽  
Species Sorting ◽  
Trait Divergence ◽  
The Tropics

Coexisting (sympatric) pairs of closely related species are often characterized by exaggerated trait differences. This widespread pattern is consistent with adaptation for reduced similarity due to costly interactions (i.e., “character displacement”)—a classic hypothesis in evolutionary theory. But it is equally consistent with a community assembly bias in which lineages with greater trait differences are more likely to establish overlapping ranges in the first place (i.e., “species sorting”), as well as with null expectations of trait divergence through time. Few comparative analyses have explicitly modeled these alternatives, and it remains unclear whether trait divergence is a general prerequisite for sympatry or a consequence of interactions between sympatric species. Here, we develop statistical models that allow us to distinguish the signature of these processes based on patterns of trait divergence in closely related lineage pairs. We compare support for each model using a dataset of bill shape differences in 207 pairs of New World terrestrial birds representing 30 avian families. We find that character displacement models are overwhelmingly supported over species sorting and null expectations, indicating that exaggerated bill shape differences in sympatric pairs result from enhanced divergent selection in sympatry. We additionally detect a latitudinal gradient in character displacement, which appears strongest in the tropics. Our analysis implicates costly species interactions as powerful drivers of trait divergence in a major vertebrate fauna. These results help substantiate a long-standing but equivocally supported linchpin of evolutionary theory.

Into and out of the tropics: the generation of the latitudinal gradient among New World passerine birds

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 1746-1757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Kennedy ◽  
Zhiheng Wang ◽  
Jason T. Weir ◽  
Carsten Rahbek ◽  
Jon Fjeldså ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Passerine Birds ◽  
The Tropics

scholarly journals Foundation Species Across a Latitudinal Gradient in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiujuan Qiao ◽  
Jiaxin Zhang ◽  
Yaozhan Xu ◽  
Xiangcheng Mi ◽  
Min Cao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Boreal Forests ◽  
Latitudinal Gradient ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Foundation Species ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractFoundation species play important roles in structuring forest communities and ecosystems. Foundation species are difficult to identify without long-term observations or experiments and their foundational roles rarely are identified before they are declining or threatened. We used new statistical criteria based on size-frequency distributions, species diversity, and spatial codispersion among woody plants to identify potential (“candidate”) foundation species in 12 large forest dynamics plots spanning 26 degrees of latitude in China. We used these data to identify a suite of candidate foundation species in Chinese forests; test the hypothesis that foundation woody plant species are more frequent in the temperate zone than in the tropics; and compare these results with comparable data from the Americas to suggest candidate foundation genera in Northern Hemisphere forests. We identified more candidate foundation species in temperate plots than in subtropical or tropical plots, and this relationship was independent of the latitudinal gradient in overall species richness. Two species of Acer, the canopy tree Acer ukurunduense and the shrubby treelet Acer barbinerve were the only two species that met both criteria in full to be considered as candidate foundation species. When we relaxed the diversity criteria, Acer, Tilia, and Juglans spp., and Corlyus mandshurica were frequently identified as candidate foundation species. In tropical plots, the tree Mezzettiopsis creaghii and the shrubs or treelets Aporusa yunnanensis and Ficus hispida had some characteristics associated with foundation species. Species diversity of co-occurring woody species was negatively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5- and 10-m spatial grains (scale) than at a 20-m grain. Conversely, Bray-Curtis dissimilarity was positively associated with basal area of candidate foundation species more frequently at 5-m than at 10- or 20-m grains. Our data support the hypothesis that foundation species should be more common in temperate than in tropical or boreal forests, and suggest that in the Northern Hemisphere that Acer be investigated further as a foundation tree genus.

scholarly journals Phylogenetic paleoecology: macroecology within an evolutionary framework

Paleobiology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-177
Author(s):  
James C. Lamsdell ◽  
Curtis R. Congreve
Keyword(s):  
Species Diversity ◽  
Spatial Variation ◽  
Geographic Distribution ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Phylogenetic Signal ◽  
Evolutionary Rates ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ecological Data ◽  
Temporal And Spatial Variation ◽  
Temporal And Spatial

The burgeoning field of phylogenetic paleoecology (Lamsdell et al. 2017) represents a synthesis of the related but differently focused fields of macroecology (Brown 1995) and macroevolution (Stanley 1975). Through a combination of the data and methods of both disciplines, phylogenetic paleoecology leverages phylogenetic theory and quantitative paleoecology to explain the temporal and spatial variation in species diversity, distribution, and disparity. Phylogenetic paleoecology is ideally situated to elucidate many fundamental issues in evolutionary biology, including the generation of new phenotypes and occupation of previously unexploited environments; the nature of relationships among character change, ecology, and evolutionary rates; determinants of the geographic distribution of species and clades; and the underlying phylogenetic signal of ecological selectivity in extinctions and radiations. This is because phylogenetic paleoecology explicitly recognizes and incorporates the quasi-independent nature of evolutionary and ecological data as expressed in the dual biological hierarchies (Eldredge and Salthe 1984; Congreve et al. 2018; Fig. 1), incorporating both as covarying factors rather than focusing on one and treating the other as error within the dataset.

The paleomagnetism of Huronian red beds and Nipissing diabase; Post-Huronian Igneous Events and apparent polar path for the interval −2300 to −1500 Ma for Laurentia

1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 749-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Roy ◽  
P. L. Lapointe
Keyword(s):  
High Stability ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Time Range ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Red Beds ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
The Many ◽  
Age Determinations ◽  
Good Agreement

Thermal, chemical, and alternating field (and two-stage) cleaning treatments of Huronian sediments and Nipissing diabase (which intrudes the sediments) from the Cobalt area yield five directions of magnetizations (A–E) of high stability; A, B, C, and E are found in the sediments, and C, D, and E in the diabase. It is suggested that magnetization B (337°, +52°; α95 = 8°; pole 158 °E, 67 °N) was acquired shortly after deposition of the Firstbrook beds [Formula: see text]; magnetization C (259°, +82°; α95 = 5°; pole 258 °E, 42 °N), found in both the diabase and sediments in contact with the diabase, was acquired during cooling following emplacement of the diabase [Formula: see text]; and magnetizations D and E, yielding poles at 264 °E, 15 °S and 000°, 09 °N respectively, were produced during the Hudsonian orogeny (−1850 to −1700 Ma). This interpretation resolves the previous inconsistencies between poles and age determinations. Good agreement between results from the Nipissing diabase and other igneous bodies indicate that widespread igneous events occurred in the time range approximately −2200 to −2100 Ma, immediately following deposition of Huronian sediments. This is referred to as 'Post-Huronian Igneous Events'. A proposed apparent polar path relative to Laurentia shows two distinct motions; for the 2300–1850 Ma interval, a latitudinal change (roughly along longitude 250° E) from high [Formula: see text] to low [Formula: see text] latitudes and, for the 1850–1500 Ma interval, a displacement along the present-day equator with first an eastward motion to about 000° longitude followed by a westward motion to 240° E longitude; the apex of the eastward excursion is given a date of [Formula: see text]. It is possible that this reflects a rotation of Laurentia about a vertical axis at the time of and following the Hudsonian orogeny. Subsequent uplift and cooling would explain the many overprinted stable magnetizations yielding poles distributed along the equator (track 4). Latitude maps indicate that Laurentia was in high latitudes from 2200–2000 Ma and in intermediate to low latitudes from 1900–1500 Ma.

scholarly journals The Influence of Ocean Thermocline Temperatures on the Earth’s Surface Climate

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 2222-2246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Oglesby ◽  
Monica Y. Stephens ◽  
Barry Saltzman
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Mixed Layer ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Surface Climate ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon ◽  
The Impact

Abstract A coupled mixed layer–atmospheric general circulation model has been used to evaluate the impact of ocean thermocline temperatures (and by proxy those of the deep ocean) on the surface climate of the earth. Particular attention has been devoted to temperature regimes both warmer and cooler than at present. The mixed layer ocean model (MLOM) simulates vertical dynamics and thermodynamics in the upper ocean, including wind mixing and buoyancy effects, and has been coupled to the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM3). Simulations were made with globally uniform thermocline warmings of +2°, +5°, and +10°C, as well as a globally uniform cooling of −5°C. A simulation was made with latitudinally varying changes in thermocline temperature such that the warming at mid- and high latitudes is much larger than at low latitudes. In all simulations, the response of surface temperature over both land and ocean was larger than that expected just as a result of the imposed thermocline temperature change, largely because of water vapor feedbacks. In this respect, the simulations were similar to those in which only changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide were imposed. In fact, when carbon dioxide was explicitly changed along with thermocline temperatures, the results were not much different than if only the thermocline temperatures were altered. Land versus ocean differences are explained largely by latent heat flux differences: the ocean is an infinite evaporative source, while land can be quite dry. The latitudinally varying case has a much larger response at mid- to high latitudes than at low latitudes; the high latitudes actually appear to effectively warm the low latitudes. Simulations exploring scenarios of glacial inception suggest that the deep ocean alone is not likely to be a key trigger but must operate in conjunction with other forcings, such as reduced carbon dioxide. Moist upland regions at mid- and high latitudes, and land regions adjacent to perennial sea ice, are the preferred locations for glacial inception in these runs. Finally, the model combination equilibrates very rapidly, meaning that a large number of simulations can be made for a fairly modest computational cost. A drawback to this is greatly reduced sensitivity to parameters such as atmospheric carbon dioxide, which requires a full response of the ocean. Thus, this approach can be considered intermediate between fixing, or prescribing, sea surface temperatures and a fully coupled modeling approach.

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