Preface to the Princeton Landmarks in Biology Edition vii Preface xi Symbols Used xiii 1. The Importance of Islands 3 2. Area and Number of Speicies 8 3. Further Explanations of the Area-Diversity Pattern 19 4. The Strategy of Colonization 68 5. Invasibility and the Variable Niche 94 6. Stepping Stones and Biotic Exchange 123 7. Evolutionary Changes Following Colonization 145 8. Prospect 181 Glossary 185 References 193 Index 201

The Theory of Island Biogeography

https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~schapire/papers/ecolmod.pdf

Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions

Statistical method for testing the neutral mutation hypothesis by DNA polymorphism.

Computational evolutionary biology, statistical phylogenetics and coalescent-based population genetics are becoming increasingly central to the analysis and understanding of molecular sequence data. We present the Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis by Sampling Trees (BEAST) software package version 1.7, which implements a family of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms for Bayesian phylogenetic inference, divergence time dating, coalescent analysis, phylogeography and related molecular evolutionary analyses. This package includes an enhanced graphical user interface program called Bayesian Evolutionary Analysis Utility (BEAUti) that enables access to advanced models for molecular sequence and phenotypic trait evolution that were previously available to developers only. The package also provides new tools for visualizing and summarizing multispecies coalescent and phylogeographic analyses. BEAUti and BEAST 1.7 are open source under the GNU lesser general public license and available at http://beast-mcmc.googlecode.com and http://beast.bio.ed.ac.uk

/pdf/bayesian-phylogenetics-with-beauti-and-the-beast-1-7-2xkb29qdvu.pdf

Bayesian Phylogenetics with BEAUti and the BEAST 1.7

Ecological changes in the phenology and distribution of plants and animals are occurring in all well-studied marine, freshwater, and terrestrial groups These observed changes are heavily biased in the directions predicted from global warming and have been linked to local or regional climate change through correlations between climate and biological variation, field and laboratory experiments, and physiological research Range-restricted species, particularly polar and mountaintop species, show severe range contractions and have been the first groups in which entire species have gone extinct due to recent climate change Tropical coral reefs and amphibians have been most negatively affected Predator-prey and plant-insect interactions have been disrupted when interacting species have responded differently to warming Evolutionary adaptations to warmer conditions have occurred in the interiors of species’ ranges, and resource use and dispersal have evolved rapidly at expanding range margins Observed genetic shifts modulate local effects of climate change, but there is little evidence that they will mitigate negative effects at the species level

https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/documents/R2ES/LitCited/LPC_2012/Parmesan_2006.pdf

Ecological and Evolutionary Responses to Recent Climate Change

Taxonomy of Chlorospingus ophthalmicus in Mexico and northern Central America

A study recently published argued against a relationship between population density and position in geographic and environmental spaces. We found a number of methodological problems underlying the analysis. We discuss the main issues and conclude that these problems hinder a robust conclusion about the original question.

https://rethinkingecology.pensoft.net/article/24827/download/pdf/

A comment on “Species are not most abundant in the centre of their geographic range or climatic niche”

Changes in geographic distributions of 5 bird species endemic to the Great Plains of North America were examined over the last few decades based on the United States Breeding Bird Survey. Examining the mean latitude of individuals of each species, 3 species showed significant or near-significant northward shifts, and 1 a significant shift southward. Over all 5 species examined, colonization events were concentrated in the northern part of the distributions of the species; in 3 species, extinctions were concentrated in the southern part of the distributions of the species. The conclusion is that significant distributional changes have taken place, but they have been subtle, and might be associated with global climate change.

Subtle recent distributional shifts in great plains bird species

Climatic variables have been the main predictors employed in ecological niche modeling and species distribution modeling, although biotic interactions are known to affect species' spatial distributions via mechanisms such as predation, competition, and mutualism. Biotic interactions can affect species' responses to abiotic environmental changes differently along environmental gradients, and abiotic environmental changes can likewise influence the nature of biotic interactions. Understanding whether and how to integrate variables at different scales in ecological niche models is essential to better estimate spatial distributions of species on macroecological scales and their responses to change. We report the leaf beetle Eurypedus nigrosignatus as an alien species in the Dominican Republic and investigate whether biotic factors played a meaningful role in the distributional expansion of the species into the Caribbean. We evaluate ecological niche models built with an additive gradient of unlinked biotic predictors-host plants, using likelihood-based model evaluation criteria (Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion) within a range of regularization multiplier parameter values. Our results support the argument that ecological niche models should be more inclusive, as selected biotic predictors can improve the performance of models, despite the increased model complexity, and show that biotic interactions matter at macroecological scales. Moreover, we provide an alternative approach to select optimal combination of relevant variables, to improve estimation of potential invasive areas using global minimum model likelihood scores.

Importance of biotic predictors in estimation of potential invasive areas: the example of the tortoise beetle Eurypedus nigrosignatus, in Hispaniola

Taxonomy is a critical tool in understanding biodiversity, and we applaud the view taken by Q. D. Wheeler et al. (“Taxonomy: impediment or expedient?”, Editorial, 16 Jan., p. [285][1]) that natural history collections and an evolving cyber-infrastructure are central to the taxonomic mission. But

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/305/5687/1106.2.full.pdf

A. Townsend Peterson

Papers

Taxonomy of Chlorospingus ophthalmicus in Mexico and northern Central America

A comment on “Species are not most abundant in the centre of their geographic range or climatic niche”

Subtle recent distributional shifts in great plains bird species

Importance of biotic predictors in estimation of potential invasive areas: the example of the tortoise beetle Eurypedus nigrosignatus, in Hispaniola

Museum Collections and Taxonomy