Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the ‘great speciator’ (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )

Jan O. Engler; Yvonne Lawrie; Juliano S. Cabral; Luc Lens

doi:10.1111/jbi.14128

Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the ‘great speciator’ (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )

Jan O. Engler^* (Corresponding Author), Yvonne Lawrie, Juliano S. Cabral, Luc Lens

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Aim
Recent breakthroughs in environmental niche models (ENMs) have substantially improved our insights in niche evolution. Assuming that closely related taxa have similar niches (i.e. niche conservatism), the combination of ENMs with phylogenetic information allows the reconstruction of ancestral niches. This reconstruction helps to identify the underlying speciation processes leading to diversification (i.e. ecological speciation under niche divergence and mutation‐order speciation under niche conservatism). Here, we studied the niche evolution in white‐eyes (the so‐called ‘great speciator’) to understand their extraordinarily fast diversification rate, wide distribution and rather conserved phenotypes. In a broader perspective, unravelling niche evolution in white‐eyes can shed light on how different niche properties such as climate, habitat or trophic level may contribute to diversification.

Location
Asian‐Pacific and Afrotropics.

Taxon
White‐eyes (Aves, genus: Zosterops).

Methods
We selected 10 wide‐ranging taxa that are equally distributed across the genus’ range and phylogeny. We studied niche evolution for a series of thermal and precipitation‐related niche axes separately. We used a time‐calibrated phylogeny encompassing the study taxa and estimated ancestral environmental niches in geographic and environmental niche spaces.

Results
We found that niche evolution in Zosterops is primarily driven by ecological speciation. Thermal niches, in particular, are characterized by a higher level of conservatism, as compared to precipitation‐related niche axes. The fact that the youngest species diverged strongest stands in stark contrast to expectations stemming from niche conservatism.

Main conclusions
Contrasting evolutionary patterns in different niche axes suggest different underlying evolutionary pressures. Hence, future studies on niche evolution should take possible disparities between niche axes into account

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1981-1993
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of Biogeography
Volume	48
Issue number	8
Early online date	8 May 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14128
Publication status	Published - Aug 2021

Keywords

ecological niche modelling
ecological speciation
Eltonian niche
great speciator
Grinnelian niche
mutation-order speciation
niche evolution
Species distribution modelling

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10.1111/jbi.14128Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Engler_etal_jbi_Niche_Evolution_Reveals_VOR
© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Final published version, 15.7 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

@article{575cbc689e064a458d588763bf21ddba,

title = "Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the {\textquoteleft}great speciator{\textquoteright} (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )",

abstract = "AimRecent breakthroughs in environmental niche models (ENMs) have substantially improved our insights in niche evolution. Assuming that closely related taxa have similar niches (i.e. niche conservatism), the combination of ENMs with phylogenetic information allows the reconstruction of ancestral niches. This reconstruction helps to identify the underlying speciation processes leading to diversification (i.e. ecological speciation under niche divergence and mutation‐order speciation under niche conservatism). Here, we studied the niche evolution in white‐eyes (the so‐called {\textquoteleft}great speciator{\textquoteright}) to understand their extraordinarily fast diversification rate, wide distribution and rather conserved phenotypes. In a broader perspective, unravelling niche evolution in white‐eyes can shed light on how different niche properties such as climate, habitat or trophic level may contribute to diversification.LocationAsian‐Pacific and Afrotropics.TaxonWhite‐eyes (Aves, genus: Zosterops).MethodsWe selected 10 wide‐ranging taxa that are equally distributed across the genus{\textquoteright} range and phylogeny. We studied niche evolution for a series of thermal and precipitation‐related niche axes separately. We used a time‐calibrated phylogeny encompassing the study taxa and estimated ancestral environmental niches in geographic and environmental niche spaces.ResultsWe found that niche evolution in Zosterops is primarily driven by ecological speciation. Thermal niches, in particular, are characterized by a higher level of conservatism, as compared to precipitation‐related niche axes. The fact that the youngest species diverged strongest stands in stark contrast to expectations stemming from niche conservatism.Main conclusionsContrasting evolutionary patterns in different niche axes suggest different underlying evolutionary pressures. Hence, future studies on niche evolution should take possible disparities between niche axes into account",

keywords = "ecological niche modelling, ecological speciation, Eltonian niche, great speciator, Grinnelian niche, mutation-order speciation, niche evolution, Species distribution modelling",

author = "Engler, {Jan O.} and Yvonne Lawrie and Cabral, {Juliano S.} and Luc Lens",

note = "ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS J.O.E. and L.L. coordinated and secured project funding with the support from J.S.C.; we thank AT Peterson and CH Graham and two reviewers for critical feedback on earlier stages of the manuscript. The project was funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO; 1527918N & G042318N). J.O.E. received additional funds by an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (12G4317N). The authors declare no conflict of interest. No permits were needed to conduct the re- search presented here. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT All data are available from open source platforms. Raw GBIF.org occurrence data used for this work (as accessed on 21st October 2016) can be accessed through GBIF Occurrence Download http://doi.org/10.15468/dl.erwqs6. We have deposited the prepared data used for this work on FigShare accessible through https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13042031.v1 as well as R scripts for data analysis in a GitHub repository accessible through https://github.com/JOEngler/ZostiNicheEvol.",

year = "2021",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1111/jbi.14128",

language = "English",

volume = "48",

pages = "1981--1993",

journal = "Journal of Biogeography",

issn = "0305-0270",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "8",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the ‘great speciator’ (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )

AU - Engler, Jan O.

AU - Lawrie, Yvonne

AU - Cabral, Juliano S.

AU - Lens, Luc

N1 - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS J.O.E. and L.L. coordinated and secured project funding with the support from J.S.C.; we thank AT Peterson and CH Graham and two reviewers for critical feedback on earlier stages of the manuscript. The project was funded by the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO; 1527918N & G042318N). J.O.E. received additional funds by an FWO Postdoctoral Fellowship (12G4317N). The authors declare no conflict of interest. No permits were needed to conduct the re- search presented here. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT All data are available from open source platforms. Raw GBIF.org occurrence data used for this work (as accessed on 21st October 2016) can be accessed through GBIF Occurrence Download http://doi.org/10.15468/dl.erwqs6. We have deposited the prepared data used for this work on FigShare accessible through https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.13042031.v1 as well as R scripts for data analysis in a GitHub repository accessible through https://github.com/JOEngler/ZostiNicheEvol.

PY - 2021/8

Y1 - 2021/8

N2 - AimRecent breakthroughs in environmental niche models (ENMs) have substantially improved our insights in niche evolution. Assuming that closely related taxa have similar niches (i.e. niche conservatism), the combination of ENMs with phylogenetic information allows the reconstruction of ancestral niches. This reconstruction helps to identify the underlying speciation processes leading to diversification (i.e. ecological speciation under niche divergence and mutation‐order speciation under niche conservatism). Here, we studied the niche evolution in white‐eyes (the so‐called ‘great speciator’) to understand their extraordinarily fast diversification rate, wide distribution and rather conserved phenotypes. In a broader perspective, unravelling niche evolution in white‐eyes can shed light on how different niche properties such as climate, habitat or trophic level may contribute to diversification.LocationAsian‐Pacific and Afrotropics.TaxonWhite‐eyes (Aves, genus: Zosterops).MethodsWe selected 10 wide‐ranging taxa that are equally distributed across the genus’ range and phylogeny. We studied niche evolution for a series of thermal and precipitation‐related niche axes separately. We used a time‐calibrated phylogeny encompassing the study taxa and estimated ancestral environmental niches in geographic and environmental niche spaces.ResultsWe found that niche evolution in Zosterops is primarily driven by ecological speciation. Thermal niches, in particular, are characterized by a higher level of conservatism, as compared to precipitation‐related niche axes. The fact that the youngest species diverged strongest stands in stark contrast to expectations stemming from niche conservatism.Main conclusionsContrasting evolutionary patterns in different niche axes suggest different underlying evolutionary pressures. Hence, future studies on niche evolution should take possible disparities between niche axes into account

AB - AimRecent breakthroughs in environmental niche models (ENMs) have substantially improved our insights in niche evolution. Assuming that closely related taxa have similar niches (i.e. niche conservatism), the combination of ENMs with phylogenetic information allows the reconstruction of ancestral niches. This reconstruction helps to identify the underlying speciation processes leading to diversification (i.e. ecological speciation under niche divergence and mutation‐order speciation under niche conservatism). Here, we studied the niche evolution in white‐eyes (the so‐called ‘great speciator’) to understand their extraordinarily fast diversification rate, wide distribution and rather conserved phenotypes. In a broader perspective, unravelling niche evolution in white‐eyes can shed light on how different niche properties such as climate, habitat or trophic level may contribute to diversification.LocationAsian‐Pacific and Afrotropics.TaxonWhite‐eyes (Aves, genus: Zosterops).MethodsWe selected 10 wide‐ranging taxa that are equally distributed across the genus’ range and phylogeny. We studied niche evolution for a series of thermal and precipitation‐related niche axes separately. We used a time‐calibrated phylogeny encompassing the study taxa and estimated ancestral environmental niches in geographic and environmental niche spaces.ResultsWe found that niche evolution in Zosterops is primarily driven by ecological speciation. Thermal niches, in particular, are characterized by a higher level of conservatism, as compared to precipitation‐related niche axes. The fact that the youngest species diverged strongest stands in stark contrast to expectations stemming from niche conservatism.Main conclusionsContrasting evolutionary patterns in different niche axes suggest different underlying evolutionary pressures. Hence, future studies on niche evolution should take possible disparities between niche axes into account

KW - ecological niche modelling

KW - ecological speciation

KW - Eltonian niche

KW - great speciator

KW - Grinnelian niche

KW - mutation-order speciation

KW - niche evolution

KW - Species distribution modelling

U2 - 10.1111/jbi.14128

DO - 10.1111/jbi.14128

M3 - Article

VL - 48

SP - 1981

EP - 1993

JO - Journal of Biogeography

JF - Journal of Biogeography

SN - 0305-0270

IS - 8

ER -

Niche evolution reveals disparate signatures of speciation in the ‘great speciator’ (white‐eyes, Aves: Zosterops )

Abstract

Keywords

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