Article
Comparative Phylogeography Highlights the Double-Edged Sword of Climate Change Faced by Arctic- and Alpine-Adapted Mammals
Registro en:
LANIER, Hayley C.; et al. Comparative Phylogeography Highlights the Double-Edged Sword of Climate Change Faced by Arctic- and Alpine-Adapted Mammals.Plos One, v.10, n.3: e0118396, 19p, 2015.
10.1371/journal.pone.0118396
Autor
Lanier, Hayley C.
Gunderson, Aren M.
Weksler, Marcelo
Fedorov, Vadim B.
Olson, Link E.
Resumen
Recent studies suggest that alpine and arctic organisms may have distinctly different phylogeographic
histories from temperate or tropical taxa, with recent range contraction into interglacial
refugia as opposed to post-glacial expansion out of refugia. We use a combination of
phylogeographic inference, demographic reconstructions, and hierarchical Approximate
Bayesian Computation to test for phylodemographic concordance among five species of alpine-adapted
small mammals in eastern Beringia. These species (Collared Pikas, Hoary
Marmots, Brown Lemmings, Arctic Ground Squirrels, and Singing Voles) vary in specificity
to alpine and boreal-tundra habitat but share commonalities (e.g., cold tolerance and nunatak
survival) that might result in concordant responses to Pleistocene glaciations. All five
species contain a similar phylogeographic disjunction separating eastern and Beringian lineages,
which we show to be the result of simultaneous divergence. Genetic diversity is similar
within each haplogroup for each species, and there is no support for a post-Pleistocene
population expansion in eastern lineages relative to those from Beringia. Bayesian skyline
plots for four of the five species do not support Pleistocene population contraction. Brown
Lemmings show evidence of late Quaternary demographic expansion without subsequent
population decline. The Wrangell-St. Elias region of eastern Alaska appears to be an important
zone of recent secondary contact for nearctic alpine mammals. Despite differences in
natural history and ecology, similar phylogeographic histories are supported for all species,
suggesting that these, and likely other, alpine- and arctic-adapted taxa are already
experiencing population and/or range declines that are likely to synergistically accelerate in
the face of rapid climate change. Climate change may therefore be acting as a doubleedged
sword that erodes genetic diversity within populations but promotes divergence and
the generation of biodiversity.