| Abstract Detail
Biogeography Struwe, Lena [1], Heiberg, Einar [2], Haag, Scott [3], Grant, Jason [4]. Comparative ecological analysis of sympatric and allopatric species and clades in the Andes. A Spatial Evolutionary and Ecological Vicariance Analysis (SEEVA) of the genus Macrocarpaea (Gentianaceae: Helieae) in the Andes provides a new way to compare and contrast ecological differences between sympatric and allopatric species pairs and sister clades. This genus is the most species-rich genus in the tribe, and frequently occurs in the wet mountainous forests of the Andes. In a biogeographic perspective, Andean Macrocarpaea are divided into a northern and a southern clade with the boundary in central Ecuador, and showing little dispersal across this invisible boundary based on Dispersal-Vicariance Analysis (DIVA). Our analyses show that allopatric speciation is more common than sympatric speciation. When sister groups were evaluated together using SEEVA for significant clade differences in variables such as annual rainfall and temperature, elevation, temperature and rainfall seasonality, geological bedrock age, and soil type, no overall patterns were found that point to one specific environmental variable as the most important diverging character. However, for each node, strong patterns in divergences for different environmental variables are found, both for sympatric and allopatric species, representing ecological niche divergence on different temporal scales.
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1 - Rutgers University, Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources, 14 College Farm Rd, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 08901, USA
2 - Lund University Hospital, Department of Clinical Physiology, Lund, SE-221 85, Sweden
3 - Rutgers University, Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901, USA
4 - Universitet de Neuchatel, Institut de botanique, Laboratoire de phanerogamie, ch. de Chantermerle 18, Neuchatel, 2007, Switzerland
Keywords:
systematics
Biogeography
Gentianaceae
Neotropics
Andes
Speciation
phylogeny
ecology
Gentianales
ecological niche
niche evolution
GIS.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper:Papers for Topics
Session: 15
Location: 177/Law
Date: Monday, July 28th, 2008
Time: 4:15 PM
Number: 15013
Abstract ID:421 |
