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Climatic Niche Evolution in the Arremon brunneinucha Complex (Aves: Passerellidae) in a Mesoamerican Landscape

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Abstract

The identification of mechanisms that have generated biodiversity is one of the major tasks in biogeography and evolutionary biology. Here, using a set of environmental variables and historical presence records, we assessed whether closely related allopatric lineages in the Arremon brunneinucha (Aves: Passerellidae) complex are either more ecologically similar or different throughout their distribution in Mesoamerica. Using PCA-env approximation, niche similarity tests, and comparative approaches, we analysed niche evolution in this species complex and the relative role of geographic and environmental factors on shaping lineage divergence. Our results suggest that most (95.24%) of the evolutionary lineages included in the A. brunneinucha complex have a null to low climatic niche overlap (Schoener’s D = 0.0–0.2), in addition, our data rejected the hypothesis of niche similarity among these lineages in 17 paired comparison cases (80.94%). We found that allopatric and nearly parapatric lineages both show evidence that their ecological niches have been maintained by sharp climatic gradients. These patterns suggest that divergence in these evolutionary lineages has been promoted due to different environmental conditions and evolutionary pressures, which in concert with geographical barriers to gene flow, have led to diversification in the A. brunneinucha complex throughout Mesoamerica.

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Data Availability

The data have not been archived. All of the analysed datasets and R-scripts generated in our study are available from the first author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the requirements for the M. Sc. Degree of IM-C. We are also grateful to Museo de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias (UNAM) and the curators of the biological collections for granting access to specimen records for this study. This work was supported by CONACyT and Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) under a Master scholarship grant [number 451119] assigned to IM-C. Financial support was also obtained from a PAPIIT-UNAM grant to AGN-S (IN 215818), PAEP-UNAM support to IM-C, and a Postdoctoral scholarship of DGAPA-UNAM to DAP-T. Alejandro Gordillo coordinated the geolocation of locality data. We thank A. T. Peterson (UK), and one anonymous reviewer for valuable discussions that improved this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Posgrado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Israel Moreno-Contreras

  2. Museo de Zoología, Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A. P. 70-399, 04510, Mexico City, Mexico

    Israel Moreno-Contreras, Luis A. Sánchez-González, David A. Prieto-Torres & Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza

  3. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, UBIPRO, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 54090, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México, Mexico

    María del Coro Arizmendi

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  1. Israel Moreno-Contreras
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  2. Luis A. Sánchez-González
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  3. María del Coro Arizmendi
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  4. David A. Prieto-Torres
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  5. Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza
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IM-C, AGN-S, and LAS-G designed the study. IM-C and DAP-T developed the analyses. All authors contributed in the analysis and interpretation of results, and in the writing of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Adolfo G. Navarro-Sigüenza.

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Moreno-Contreras, I., Sánchez-González, L.A., Arizmendi, M.C. et al. Climatic Niche Evolution in the Arremon brunneinucha Complex (Aves: Passerellidae) in a Mesoamerican Landscape. Evol Biol 47, 123–132 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11692-020-09498-7

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