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414 results for “Ecology: evolutionary”
Data and supplementary materials from: Large genetic divergence underpins cryptic local adaptation across ecological and evolutionary gradients
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Universal metabolic constraints shape the evolutionary ecology of diving in animals
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Growing in the city: urban evolutionary ecology of avian growth rates.
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Data for: Ecology and behavior predict an evolutionary trade-off between song complexity and elaborate plumages in antwrens (Aves, Thamnophilidae)
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Data from: Unraveling the ecological and evolutionary impacts of a plant invader on the pollination of a native plant
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Data from: Evolutionary constraint on low elevation range expansion: defense-abiotic stress tolerance tradeoff in crosses of the ecological model Boechera stricta
Most transplant experiments across species geographic range boundaries indicate that adaptation to stressful environments outside the range is often constrained. However, the mechanisms of these constraints remain poorly understood. We used extended generation crosses from diverged high and low elevation populations. In experiments across low elevation range boundaries, there was selection on the parental lines for abiotic stress tolerance and resistance to herbivores. However, in support of a defense-tolerance tradeoff, extended generation crosses showed non-independent segregation of these traits in the lab across a drought-stress gradient and in the field across the low elevation range boundary. Genotypic variation in a marker from a region of the genome containing a candidate gene (MYC2) was associated with change in the genetic tradeoff. Thus, using crosses and forward genetics, we found experimental genetic and molecular evidence for a pleiotropic tradeoff that could constrain the evolution of range expansion.
Evolutionary and ecological processes influence a plant-bumble bee network
<p>Species interactions, such as those between plants and pollinators, are known to be shaped by both evolutionary history and ecological factors. However, the relative importance of neutral- and niche-based ecological processes is still under debate, and little is known about which ecological factors are most important for explaining phylogenetic patterns in interaction networks. Using a plant-bumble bee network comprising 2428 interactions between 29 plant species and 12 bumble bee species in the Himalaya-Hengduan mountains, we tested for phylogenetic signal and whether phylogenetic pattern was explained by 14 plant and four bumble bee ecological traits. We also tested whether trait matching between bumble bee tongue length and flower tube depth explained interaction patterns. All of the measured traits contributed to explaining the phylogenetic attraction pattern, among them, species abundances, nectar volume, and nectar sugar concentration were the most important predictors. Meanwhile, trait mismatch between bumble bee tongue length and flower tube depth failed to predict the interactions, with short-tongued bees generalized across tube depths. Our findings suggest neutral-based process seems to matter more than niche-based processes in this system and help to predict how interactions will respond when key traits are altered by pollinator declines and global change effects.</p>
Wild at heart: programs to diminish negative ecological and evolutionary effects of conservation hatcheries
<p>Hatchery programs are critical for conservation and management of many imperiled fishes. Most traditional aquaculture programs negatively affect ecological performance, genetic, and phenotypic diversity of hatchery-origin fish compared with wild counterparts. Here, we synthesize outcomes of three conservation programs aimed at enhancing 'wildness'. Each program focuses on a different species: lake sturgeon, razorback sucker, and Rio Grande silvery minnow. These species differ in key life history traits including size and age at sexual maturity, reproductive and migratory behavior, and habitat requirements. Threats to persistence of the focal taxa, however, exemplify common pressures experienced by freshwater fishes worldwide. Conservation hatchery programs for lake sturgeon, razorback sucker, and Rio Grande silvery minnow capitalize on natural spawning in the wild followed by collections of wild-fertilized eggs/larvae for hatchery rearing. Individuals are repatriated to the wild after rearing to body sizes less susceptible to mortality. Protocols include collections of eggs or larvae across the entire spawning period and at appropriate geographic scales to maximize retention of genetic diversity and, to increase the likelihood of preserving variation for heritable life history traits. Using direct and indirect evidence we show that hatchery programs that allow individuals to fulfill parts of the life-cycle in their native habitats can be conducted without compromising genetic diversity. Adoption of similar strategies in other imperiled fishes would improve understanding of species life history, and provide an incentive to protect native habitats so they may eventually support self-sustaining populations.</p>
Data from: Visualizing connectivity of ecological and evolutionary concepts – an exploration of research on plant species rarity
<p>Understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors that influence species rarity has important theoretical and applied implications, yet the reasons why some species are rare while others are common remain unresolved. As a novel exploration of scientific knowledge, we used network analysis conceptually to visualize the foci of a comprehensive base of >800 studies on plant species rarity within the context of ecology and evolution. In doing so, we highlight existing research strengths that could substantiate novel syntheses and gaps that could inspire new research. Our results reveal strong integrated foci on population dynamics with other ecological concepts. In contrast, despite the potential for ecological and evolutionary processes to interact, few studies explored the interplay of environmental factors and microevolutionary patterns. The cellular and molecular biology, physiology, and plasticity of rare plant species within both ecological and evolutionary contexts similarly provide avenues for impactful future investigations.</p>
Data from: Ecological and evolutionary significance of a lack of capacity for extended developmental arrest in crocodilian eggs
Hypoxia within the oviducts maintains embryonic arrest in turtles at the pre-ovipositional stage, which expands the timeframe over which nesting can occur without compromising embryo survival. The arrest can be extended post-oviposition through incubation of eggs in hypoxia. We determined whether crocodilian embryos have this same capacity. We also tested whether increased oxygen availability during incubation alters hatching success. We incubated freshly-laid saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) eggs (N = 83) at 32°C in one of five treatments; control (normoxia; 21% O2), 3-day and 6-day hypoxia (1% O2), or 3-day and 6-day hyperoxia (42% O2). Incubation (~82 days) was then completed in normoxia. There was a significant effect of treatment on survival of embryos through to hatching (p < 0.001). The hypoxic treatments resulted in almost no hatching (6.7% and 0% survival for the 3- and 6- day treatments respectively), while the hyperoxic and control treatments resulted in normal to high hatching success (86.6%, 100% and 64.2% for the control, 3- and 6- day hyperoxic treatments respectively). Unlike turtles, hypoxic incubation of crocodile eggs failed to delay development. Our results provide the first experimental evidence that, unlike turtles, crocodiles do not exhibit embryonic arrest when incubated under hypoxic conditions immediately following oviposition. An absence of embryonic arrest is of ecological and evolutionary significance, as it implies that crocodilians lack an ability to avoid adverse environmental conditions through delayed nesting and that, unlike turtles, embryonic arrest may not be a potential explanation for the lack of viviparity in the order Crocodylia.
Data from: Testing alternative hypotheses for evolutionary diversification in an African songbird: rainforest refugia versus ecological gradients
Geographic isolation in rainforest refugia and local adaptation to ecological gradients may both be important drivers of evolutionary diversification. However, their relative importance and the underlying mechanisms of these processes remain poorly understood because few empirical studies address both putative processes in a single system. A key question is to what extent is divergence in signals that are important in mate and species recognition driven by isolation in rainforest refugia or by divergent selection across ecological gradients? We studied the little greenbul, Andropadus virens, an African songbird, in Cameroon and Uganda, to determine whether refugial isolation or ecological gradients better explain existing song variation. We then tested whether song variation attributable to refugial or ecological divergence was biologically meaningful using reciprocal playback experiments to territorial males. We found that much of the existing song variation can be explained by both geographic isolation and ecological gradients, but that divergence across the gradient, and not geographic isolation, affects male response levels. These data suggest that ecologically divergent traits, independent of historical isolation during glacial cycles, can promote reproductive isolation. Our study provides further support for the importance of ecology in explaining patterns of evolutionary diversification in ecologically diverse regions of the planet.
Data from: Ecological and evolutionary diversification within the genus Carex (Cyperaceae): consequences for community assembly in subarctic fens
The concept of limiting similarity predicts that closely related taxa are less likely to co-occur than expected by chance. The degree to which the phylogenetic relatedness in plant communities is in accord with limiting similarity has been little tested at the scale where the consequences of adaptive differentiation during speciation should be most evident: the scale of neighboring, congeneric plants within a community. To quantify species co-occurrence patterns in relation to environment, we sampled sedge species, their rooting level relative to the water table, and the water pH in 2,124 0.25 m² quadrats distributed across 29 subarctic fens in the central Labrador Peninsula. We estimated phylogenetic relationships using four DNA regions (ETS, ITS, matK, trnL-trnF) for all species of Carex (42), Eriophorum (6), and Trichophorum (2) in the region, of which 21, four, and two, respectively, occurred in the sampled fens. We demonstrate that closely related species of Carex are less likely to co-occur than expected by chance using 1) a probabilistic method to test the significance of pairwise co-occurrence patterns of species, and 2) linear mixed modeling to relate these patterns to phylogenetic relationships and ecological tolerances along gradients of substrate pH and rooting level in relation to the water table. The results also indicate that suites of species with significant mutual pairwise co-occurrence belong to distant lineages within the Cariceae-Dulichieae-Scirpeae clade of Cyperaceae and have stabilizing niche differences. We suggest that niche differentiation during the evolution and diversification of a clade of wetland Carex species over the past few million years, especially during the dynamic glacial cycles of the Pleistocene, has resulted in diverse sedge communities that share space and resources in harsh northern peatland habitats.
Data from: The cryptic origins of evolutionary novelty: 1,000-fold-faster trophic diversification rates without increased ecological opportunity or hybrid swarm
Ecological opportunity is frequently proposed as the sole ingredient for adaptive radiation into novel niches. An additional trigger may be genome-wide hybridization resulting from 'hybrid swarm'. However, these hypotheses have been difficult to test due to the rarity of comparable control environments lacking adaptive radiations. Here I exploit such a pattern in microendemic radiations of Caribbean pupfishes. I show that a sympatric three-species radiation on San Salvador Island, Bahamas diversified 1,445 times faster than neighboring islands in jaw length due to evolution of a novel scale-eating adaptive zone from a generalist ancestral niche. I then sampled 22 generalist populations on seven neighboring islands and measured morphological diversity, stomach content diversity, dietary isotopic diversity, genetic diversity, lake/island areas, macroalgae richness, and Caribbean-wide patterns of gene flow. None of these standard metrics of ecological opportunity or gene flow were associated with adaptive radiation, except for slight increases in macroalgae richness. Thus, exceptional trophic diversification is highly localized despite myriad generalist populations in comparable environmental and genetic backgrounds. This study provides a strong counterexample to the ecological/hybrid-swarm theories of adaptive radiation and suggests that diversification of novel specialists on a sparse fitness landscape is constrained by more than ecological opportunity and gene flow.
Data from: Ecological and evolutionary effects of fragmentation on infectious disease
Ecological theory predicts that disease incidence increases with increasing density of host networks, yet evolutionary theory suggests that host resistance increases accordingly. To test the combined effects of ecological and evolutionary forces on host-pathogen systems, we analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of a plant (Plantago lanceolata)–fungal pathogen (Podosphaera plantaginis)relationship for 12 years in over 4000 host populations. Disease prevalence at the metapopulation level was low, with high annual pathogen extinction rates balanced by frequent (re-)colonizations. Highly connected host populations experienced less pathogen colonization and higher pathogen extinction rates than expected; a laboratory assay confirmed that this phenomenon was caused by higher levels of disease resistance in highly connected host populations.
Data from: Comparative ecological transcriptomics and the contribution of gene expression to the evolutionary potential of a threatened fish
Understanding whether small populations with low genetic diversity can respond to rapid environmental change via phenotypic plasticity is an outstanding research question in biology. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has recently provided the opportunity to examine variation in gene expression, a surrogate for phenotypic variation, in non-model species. We used a comparative RNA-seq approach to assess expression variation within and among adaptively divergent populations of a threatened freshwater fish, Nannoperca australis, found across a steep hydroclimatic gradient in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. These populations evolved under contrasting selective environments (e.g. dry/hot lowland; wet/cold upland) and represent opposite ends of the species' spectrum of genetic diversity and population size. We tested the hypothesis that environmental variation among isolated populations has driven the evolution of divergent expression at ecologically important genes using differential expression (DE) analysis and an ANOVA-based comparative phylogenetic expression variance and evolution model framework based on 27,425 de novo assembled transcripts. Additionally, we tested whether gene expression variance within-populations was correlated with levels of standing genetic diversity. We identified 290 DE candidate transcripts, 33 transcripts with evidence for high expression plasticity, and 50 candidates for divergent selection on gene expression after accounting for phylogenetic structure. Variance in gene expression appeared unrelated to levels of genetic diversity. Functional annotation of the candidate transcripts revealed variation in water quality is an important factor influencing expression variation for N. australis. Our findings suggest that gene expression variation can contribute to the evolutionary potential of small populations.
Data from: Ecological and evolutionary implications of allometric growth in stomach size of brachyuran crabs
Individual characteristics often scale allometrically with organismal body size and the form of this scaling can be influenced by ecological and evolutionary factors. Examining the specific form of this scaling can therefore yield important insights into organismal ecology and evolution and the ability of organisms to respond to future environmental changes. We examine the allometric scaling of stomach volume with body mass for 17 species of brachyuran crabs. We also examine how this scaling is influenced by dietary strategy, maximum body size, and activity level, all while controlling for phylogenetic relationships between the species. We show that the slope and intercept of the allometric scaling relationships vary across species and are influenced by all three ecological factors examined here, as well as by evolutionary relationships. These results highlight potential divergent strategies in stomach growth taken by different groups of crabs and highlight potential limitations that may be imposed on the ability of this group of organisms to respond to warming trends expected with climate change.
Data from: A new species of burnetiid (Therapsida, Burnetiamorpha) from the early Wuchiapingian of South Africa and implications for the evolutionary ecology of the family Burnetiidae.
Burnetiidae is a family of basal therapsids that is known from late Permian-aged (Lopingian) sequences from southern and eastern Africa and European Russia. Recent discoveries of related genera within the broader clade Burnetiamorpha have added to our understanding of morphological variation in the group but have eroded the list of characters defining the family Burnetiidae. We describe a new burnetiid taxon, Leucocephalus wewersi gen. et sp. nov., and argue that Burnetiidae can be defined by, among other characters, the presence of two bosses on the ventrolateral surface of suborbital bar and zygomatic arch, high skull angulation between the orbits, and a median frontal crest that becomes wider and lower posteriorly. The new specimen was found in the early Wuchiapingian Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone of the Main Karoo Basin and, along with previous discoveries, indicates that the family reached its greatest diversity and abundance in the early Wuchiapingian. Diversity declined into the later Wuchiapingian and Changhsingian. Although the clade Burnetiamorpha, including the family Burnetiidae, contains at least 11 genera, each of these is exceptionally rare, with most represented by only one specimen. This could be attributed to a genuine ecological characteristic or may be the result of biogeographic factors, particularly if the Main Karoo Basin was on the periphery of their range.
Data from: Ecological, evolutionary and human-mediated determinants of poeciliid species richness on Caribbean islands
Aim: The theory of island biogeography provides a predictive framework relating species richness to island size and distance from the mainland. However, the theory as originally formulated does not necessarily scale to large islands and continental landmasses that are capable of generating species through in situ speciation (rather than entirely by colonization), nor does it necessarily account for how human introduction of species alters traditional biogeographical patterns. Here, we examine the ecological (colonization and extinction), evolutionary (in situ speciation) and human-mediated (deliberate introductions) determinants of species richness in a taxonomic group that has undergone a radiation on Caribbean islands: live-bearing fishes of the family Poeciliidae. Location: The Caribbean. Methods: We created a database of both native and introduced poeciliid species occurrence on Caribbean islands through literature review, and estimated the number of colonizations versus speciation events on each island using a molecular phylogeny. Linear regression and other statistical tests were used to explore species–area and species–isolation relationships. Results: Species richness on small islands results entirely from colonization and does not significantly increase with island area, whereas on larger islands species richness increases dramatically as a function of area due primarily to in situ speciation. Poeciliid fishes have been introduced widely, both as a by-product of their popularity in the aquarium hobby and as a means of mosquito control. We show that such establishments have occurred disproportionately on islands depauperate in native species, and that introduced species richness is positively correlated with economic interconnectedness (shipping traffic) and human population size. Main conclusions: On large Caribbean islands in situ speciation has elevated the number of poeciliid species beyond that predicted from ecological processes alone. Introduced species significantly alter biogeographical patterns.
Data from: Ecological and evolutionary determinants for the adaptive radiation of the Madagascan vangas
Adaptive radiation is the rapid diversification of a single lineage into many species that inhabit a variety of environments or use a variety of resources and differ in traits required to exploit these. Why some lineages undergo adaptive radiation is not well-understood, but filling unoccupied ecological space appears to be a common feature. We construct a complete, dated, species-level phylogeny of the endemic Vangidae of Madagascar. This passerine bird radiation represents a classic, but poorly known, avian adaptive radiation. Our results reveal an initial rapid increase in evolutionary lineages and diversification in morphospace after colonizing Madagascar in the late Oligocene some 25 Mya. A subsequent key innovation involving unique bill morphology was associated with a second increase in diversification rates about 10 Mya. The volume of morphospace occupied by contemporary Madagascan vangas is in many aspects as large (shape variation)—or even larger (size variation)—as that of other better-known avian adaptive radiations, including the much younger Galapagos Darwin's finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers. Morphological space bears a close relationship to diet, substrate use, and foraging movements, and thus our results demonstrate the great extent of the evolutionary diversification of the Madagascan vangas.
Data from: Proteomic evidence of a paedomorphic evolutionary process within a marine snail species: a strategy for adapting to extreme ecological conditions?
The exposed and sheltered ecotypes of the marine snail Littorina saxatilis from European rocky shores are considered a key model system to study adaptation and ecological speciation. Previous studies showed that two ecotypes (RB and SU) of this species in NW Spain have differently adapted to different shore levels and microhabitats. In order to understand how this divergent adaptive process has been accomplished, we followed a quantitative proteomic approach to investigate the proteome variation in a number of different biological factors, i.e. ecotype, ontogeny and their interactions. This approach allowed testing the hypothesis that one of the ecotypes has evolved by paedomorphosis, and also whether or not the molecular mechanisms related to ecotype differentiation are set up in early developmental stages. Additionally the identification of some candidate proteins by mass spectrometry provides some functional insights about these evolutionary processes. Results from this study provided evidence of higher ontogenetic differentiation at proteome level in the RB (metamorphic) than in SU (paedomorphic) ecotype that point to the possibility of juvenile stage retention in this latter ecotype. The level of protein expression (proteome) differences between ecotypes maintained nearly constant from late embryonic stages to adulthood, although some proteins involved in these changes considerably differed in embryonic compared to other ontogenetic stages. Paedomorphosis may be the evolutionary response of the SU ecotype of solving the trade-off during sexually immaturity that is caused by the evolution of small size arising from adaptation to the wave exposed habitat. Some potential candidate genes of adaptation related to energetic metabolism have been identified, providing a promising baseline for future functional analyses.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.