scholarly journals Multiple adaptive solutions to face climatic constraints: novel insights in the debate over the role of convergence in local adaptation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Badr Benjelloun ◽  
Kevin Leempoel ◽  
Frederic Boyer ◽  
Sylvie Stucki ◽  
Ian Streeter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
Mammal Species ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Adaptive Mechanisms ◽  
Rainfall Seasonality ◽  
Set Up

The extent to which genomic convergence shapes locally adapted phenotypes in different species remains a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. It would help assessing the relative role of historical contingencies versus determinism in evolution. To bring new insights to this debate we set up a framework which aimed to compare the adaptive trajectories of two domesticated mammal species co-distributed in diversified landscapes. We sequenced the genomes of 160 sheep and 161 goats extensively managed along environmental gradients, including temperature, rainfall, seasonality and altitude, to identify genes and biological processes shaping local adaptation. Allele frequencies at adaptive loci were rarely found to vary gradually along environmental gradients, but rather displayed a discontinuous shift at the extremities of environmental clines. Of the more than 430 adaptive genes identified, only 6 were orthologous between sheep and goats and those responded differently to environmental pressures, suggesting different adaptive mechanisms in these two closely related species. Such diversity of adaptive pathways may result from a high number of biological functions involved in adaptation to multiple eco-climatic gradients, and provides more arguments for the role of contingency and stochasticity in adaptation rather than repeatability and determinism.

scholarly journals Range-wide spatial mapping reveals convergent character displacement of bird song

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1902) ◽  
pp. 20190443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander N. G. Kirschel ◽  
Nathalie Seddon ◽  
Joseph A. Tobias
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Character Displacement ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Interspecific Territoriality ◽  
Coexisting Species

A long-held view in evolutionary biology is that character displacement generates divergent phenotypes in closely related coexisting species to avoid the costs of hybridization or ecological competition, whereas an alternative possibility is that signals of dominance or aggression may instead converge to facilitate coexistence among ecological competitors. Although this counterintuitive process—termed convergent agonistic character displacement—is supported by recent theoretical and empirical studies, the extent to which it drives spatial patterns of trait evolution at continental scales remains unclear. By modelling the variation in song structure of two ecologically similar species of Hypocnemis antbird across western Amazonia, we show that their territorial signals converge such that trait similarity peaks in the sympatric zone, where intense interspecific territoriality between these taxa has previously been demonstrated. We also use remote sensing data to show that signal convergence is not explained by environmental gradients and is thus unlikely to evolve by sensory drive (i.e. acoustic adaptation to the sound transmission properties of habitats). Our results suggest that agonistic character displacement driven by interspecific competition can generate spatial patterns opposite to those predicted by classic character displacement theory, and highlight the potential role of social selection in shaping geographical variation in signal phenotypes of ecological competitors.

scholarly journals Evaluation of genetic isolation within an island flora reveals unusually widespread local adaptation and supports sympatric speciation

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1648) ◽  
pp. 20130342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander S. T. Papadopulos ◽  
Maria Kaye ◽  
Céline Devaux ◽  
Helen Hipperson ◽  
Jackie Lighten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Flow ◽  
Local Adaptation ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Isolation By Distance ◽  
Model Averaging ◽  
Dispersal Limitation ◽  
Population Divergence ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Isolation By Environment

It is now recognized that speciation can proceed even when divergent natural selection is opposed by gene flow. Understanding the extent to which environmental gradients and geographical distance can limit gene flow within species can shed light on the relative roles of selection and dispersal limitation during the early stages of population divergence and speciation. On the remote Lord Howe Island (Australia), ecological speciation with gene flow is thought to have taken place in several plant genera. The aim of this study was to establish the contributions of isolation by environment (IBE) and isolation by community (IBC) to the genetic structure of 19 plant species, from a number of distantly related families, which have been subjected to similar environmental pressures over comparable time scales. We applied an individual-based, multivariate, model averaging approach to quantify IBE and IBC, while controlling for isolation by distance (IBD). Our analyses demonstrated that all species experienced some degree of ecologically driven isolation, whereas only 12 of 19 species were subjected to IBD. The prevalence of IBE within these plant species indicates that divergent selection in plants frequently produces local adaptation and supports hypotheses that ecological divergence can drive speciation in sympatry.

scholarly journals Range-wide spatial mapping reveals convergent character displacement of bird song

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander N. G. Kirschel ◽  
Nathalie Seddon ◽  
Joseph A. Tobias
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Patterns ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Remote Sensing Data ◽  
Character Displacement ◽  
Similar Species ◽  
Interspecific Territoriality ◽  
Coexisting Species

AbstractA long-held view in evolutionary biology is that character displacement generates divergent phenotypes in closely related coexisting species to avoid the costs of hybridisation or ecological competition, whereas an alternative possibility is that signals of dominance or aggression may instead converge to facilitate coexistence among ecological competitors. Although this counter-intuitive process—termed convergent agonistic character displacement—is supported by recent theoretical and empirical studies, the extent to which it drives spatial patterns of trait evolution at continental scales remains unclear. By modeling variation in song structure of two ecologically similar species of Hypocnemis antbird across western Amazonia, we show that their territorial signals converge such that trait similarity peaks in the sympatric zone, where intense interspecific territoriality between these taxa has previously been demonstrated. We also use remote sensing data to show that signal convergence is not explained by environmental gradients and is thus unlikely to evolve by sensory drive (i.e. acoustic adaptation to the sound transmission properties of habitats). Our results suggest that agonistic character displacement driven by interspecific competition can generate spatial patterns opposite to those predicted by classic character displacement theory, and highlight the potential role of social selection in shaping geographical variation in signal phenotypes of ecological competitors.

scholarly journals Metacommunities from bacteria to birds: stronger environmental effects in Mediterranean than in tropical ponds

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ángel Gálvez ◽  
Pedro R. Peres-Neto ◽  
Andreu Castillo-Escrivà ◽  
Fabián Bonilla ◽  
Antonio Camacho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Environmental Gradients ◽  
Variation Partitioning ◽  
Generalized Additive Models ◽  
Environmental Filtering ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Temporary Ponds ◽  
Relative Role ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractThe metacommunity concept provides a theoretical framework that aims at explaining organism distributions by a combination of environmental filtering, dispersal and drift. With the development of statistical tools to quantify and partially isolate the role of each of these processes, empirical metacommunity studies have multiplied worldwide. However, few works attempt a multi-taxon approach and even fewer compare two distant biogeographical regions using the same methodology. Under this framework, we tested the expectation that temperate (Mediterranean) pond metacommunities would be more influenced by environmental and spatial processes than tropical ones, because of stronger environmental gradients and higher isolation of waterbodies.We surveyed 30 tropical and 32 Mediterranean temporary ponds and obtained data on 49 environmental variables (including limnological, hydrogeomorphological, biotic, climatic, and landscape variables). We characterized the biological communities of Bacteria and Archaea (from the water column and the sediment), phytoplankton, zooplankton, benthic invertebrates, amphibians and birds, and estimated the relative role of space and environment on metacommunity organization for each group and region, by means of variation partitioning using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs).The residual (unexplained) variation was larger in tropical pond metacommunities, suggesting a higher role for stochastic processes and/or effects of unmeasured processes such as biotic interactions in the tropics. Environmental filtering was important in both tropical and Mediterranean ponds, but markedly stronger in the latter, probably related to higher environmental heterogeneity. The variability between taxonomic groups in spatial and environmental contributions was very wide, and only some similarities between geographic settings were observed for the environmental effects of passively dispersing organisms, with rotifers and diatoms being among the most and least affected by the abiotic environment, respectively, in both areas. Overall, these results provide support, in a wide variety of aquatic organisms, for the classical view of stronger abiotic niche constraints in temperate areas compared to the tropics.

A reconnaissance of tropical resources during Revolutionary years: the role of the Paris Museum d'Histoire Naturelle

1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
MADELEINE LY-TIO-FANE
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Extensive Literature ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Joseph Ii

SUMMARY The recent extensive literature on exploration and the resulting scientific advances has failed to highlight the contribution of Austrian enterprise to the study of natural history. The leading role of Joseph II among the neutral powers which assumed the carrying trade of the belligerents during the American War of Independence, furthered the development of collections for the Schönbrunn Park and Gardens which had been set up on scientific principles by his parents. On the conclusion of peace, Joseph entrusted to Professor Maerter a world-encompassing mission in the course of which the Chief Gardener Franz Boos and his assistant Georg Scholl travelled to South Africa to collect plants and animals. Boos pursued the mission to Isle de France and Bourbon (Mauritius and Reunion), conveyed by the then unknown Nicolas Baudin. He worked at the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses, with Nicolas Cere, or at Palma with Joseph Francois Charpentier de Cossigny. The linkage of Austrian and French horticultural expertise created a situation fraught with opportunities which were to lead Baudin to the forefront of exploration and scientific research as the century closed in the upheaval of the Revolutionary Wars.

It Keeps Me Seeking

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Briggs ◽  
Hans Halvorson ◽  
Andrew Steane
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Good Argument ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Argument From Design ◽  
Relationship Of

Two scientists and a philosopher aim to show how science both enriches and is enriched by Christian faith. The text is written around four themes: 1. God is a being to be known, not a hypothesis to be tested; 2. We set a high bar on what constitutes good argument; 3. Uncertainty is OK; 4. We are allowed to open up the window that the natural world offers us. This is not a work of apologetics. Rather, the text takes an overview of various themes and gives reactions and responses, intended to place science correctly as a valued component of the life of faith. The difference between philosophical analysis and theological reflection is expounded. Questions of human identity are addressed from philosophy, computer science, quantum physics, evolutionary biology and theological reflection. Contemporary physics reveals the subtle and open nature of physical existence, and offers lessons in how to learn and how to live with incomplete knowledge. The nature and role of miracles is considered. The ‘argument from design’ is critiqued, especially arguments from fine-tuning. Logical derivation from impersonal facts is not an appropriate route to a relationship of mutual trust. Mainstream evolutionary biology is assessed to be a valuable component of our understanding, but no exploratory process can itself fully account for the nature of what is discovered. To engage deeply in science is to seek truth and to seek a better future; it is also an activity of appreciation, as one may appreciate a work of art.

Limited Extended Inheritance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Merlin
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology

This chapter addresses the question of the extension of biological inheritance in the light of the fact that organisms inherit much more than DNA. Starting from recent proposals to reconceive the concept of biological inheritance, the chapter shows that one of the main assumptions in the literature is simply taken for granted without providing any evidence or argument to support it. The chapter first analyzes four distinctions—and the lessons drawn from them—and then proposes a redefinition of inheritance, which brings to the fore its privileged link with reproduction and the specific theoretical role of this concept in evolutionary biology.

Challenging the Modern Synthesis

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Modern Synthesis ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Original Essays ◽  
New Biology ◽  
Conceptual Foundations ◽  
Orthodox View

Since its origin in the early 20th century, the modern synthesis theory of evolution has grown to represent the orthodox view on the process of organic evolution. It is a powerful and successful theory. Its defining features include the prominence it accords to genes in the explanation of development and inheritance, and the role of natural selection as the cause of adaptation. Since the advent of the 21st century, however, the modern synthesis has been subject to repeated and sustained challenges. In the last two decades, evolutionary biology has witnessed unprecedented growth in the understanding of those processes that underwrite the development of organisms and the inheritance of characters. The empirical advances usher in challenges to the conceptual foundations of evolutionary theory. Many current commentators charge that the new biology of the 21st century calls for a revision, extension, or wholesale rejection of the modern synthesis theory of evolution. Defenders of the modern synthesis maintain that the theory can accommodate the exciting new advances in biology, without forfeiting its central precepts. The original essays collected in this volume—by evolutionary biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of biology—survey and assess the various challenges to the modern synthesis arising from the new biology of the 21st century. Taken together, the essays cover a spectrum of views, from those that contend that the modern synthesis can rise to the challenges of the new biology, with little or no revision required, to those that call for the abandonment of the modern synthesis.

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