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A novel method to calculate climatic niche similarity among species with restricted ranges—the case of terrestrial Lycian salamanders

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Abstract

Within the framework of the present study we test whether climatic niche similarity can be identified in a monophyletic group of species inhabiting remarkably restricted ranges by pooling presence data of all species into a single concatenated data set and subsequently jackknifing single species. We expect that, when the jackknifed species differs markedly in its climatic niche from all other species, this approach will result in increased niche homogeneity, allowing assessments of niche divergence patterns. To test our novel jackknife approach, we developed species distribution models for all members of Lycian salamanders (genus Lyciasalamandra), native to Turkey and the adjacent Aegean islands using Maxent. Degrees of niche similarity among species were assessed using Schoener’s index. Significance of results was tested using null-models. The degree of niche similarity was generally high among all seven species, with only L. helverseni differing significantly from the others. Carstic lime stones providing specific microhabitat features may explain the high degree of niche similarity detected, since the variables with the highest explanative power in our models (i.e. mean temperature, and precipitation of the coldest quarter) corresponded well with salamander natural history observations, supporting the biologically plausibility of the results. We conclude that the jackknife approach presented here for the first time allows testing for niche similarity in species inhabiting restricted ranges and with few species records available. Our results strongly support the view that detailed natural history information and knowledge of microhabitats is crucial when assessing possible climate change impacts on species.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Dan Warren, who helped us with statistics and provided us with the Perl script referred to in Warren et al. (2008). The manuscript benefitted from the valuable comments of G. Francesco Ficetola and Jan O. Engler. Part of our work was funded by the 'Forschungsinitiative' of the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Culture of the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany 'Die Folgen des Global Change für Bioressourcen, Gesetzgebung und Standardsetzung'. Thanks to Jerome Speybroeck for providing unpublished distribution records and Ursula Bott for valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, 53113, Bonn, Germany

    Dennis Rödder

  2. Department of Biogeography, Trier University, 54286, Trier, Germany

    Dennis Rödder, Stefan Lötters & Michael Veith

  3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Education, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

    Mehmed Öz

  4. Lupinelaan 25, NL-5582CG, Waalre, The Netherlands

    Sergé Bogaerts

  5. Section of Zoology-Marine Biology, Department of Biology, University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis, 157 84, Athens, Greece

    Karolos Eleftherakos

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  1. Dennis Rödder
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  2. Stefan Lötters
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  4. Sergé Bogaerts
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  5. Karolos Eleftherakos
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  6. Michael Veith
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Correspondence to Dennis Rödder.

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Rödder, D., Lötters, S., Öz, M. et al. A novel method to calculate climatic niche similarity among species with restricted ranges—the case of terrestrial Lycian salamanders. Org Divers Evol 11, 409–423 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-011-0058-y

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