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

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

Global climate has fluctuated greatly during the past three million years, leading to the recent major ice ages. An inescapable consequence for most living organisms is great changes in their distribution, which are expressed differently in boreal, temperate and tropical zones. Such range changes can be expected to have genetic consequences, and the advent of DNA technology provides most suitable markers to examine these. Several good data sets are now available, which provide tests of expectations, insights into species colonization and unexpected genetic subdivision and mixture of species. The genetic structure of human populations may be viewed in the same context. The present genetic structure of populations, species and communities has been mainly formed by Quaternary ice ages, and genetic, fossil and physical data combined can greatly help our understanding of how organisms were so affected.

http://webpages.icav.up.pt/PTDC/BIA-BEC/105083/2008/hewitt2000.pdf

The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages

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An appreciation of the scale and frequency of climatic oscillations in the past few million years is modifying our views on how evolution proceeds. Such major events caused extinction and repeated changes in the ranges of those taxa that survived. Their spatial effects depend on latitude and topography, with extensive extinction and recolonization in higher latitudes and altitudinal shifts and complex refugia nearer the tropics. The associated population dynamics varied with life history and geography, and the present genetic constitution of the populations and species carry attenuated signals of these past dynamics. Phylogeographic studies with DNA have burgeoned recently and studies are reviewed from the arctic, temperate and tropical regions, seeking commonalities of cause in the resulting genetic patterns. Arctic species show distinct shallow genetic clades with common geographical boundaries. Thus Beringia is distinct phylogeographically, but its role as a refugial source is complex. Arctic taxa do not show the common genetic pattern of southern richness and northern purity in north-temperate species. Temperate refugial regions in Europe and North America show relatively deep DNA divergence for many taxa, indicating their presence over several Ice Ages, and suggesting a mode of speciation by repeated allopatry. DNA evidence indicates temperate species in Europe had different patterns of postglacial colonization across the same area and different ones in previous oscillations, whereas the northwest region of North America was colonized from the north, east and south. Tropical montane regions contain deeply diverged lineages, often in a relatively small geographical area, suggesting their survival there from the Pliocene. Our poor understanding of refugial biodiversity would benefit from further combined fossil and genetic studies.

http://webpages.icav.up.pt/PTDC/BIA-BEC/099915/2008/4.Hewitt%202004%20PhilTransRSocLondB.pdf

Genetic consequences of climatic oscillations in the Quaternary.

We employed Bayesian coalescent modeling of samples of mitochondrial control region sequences in two species of shorebird, Red Knots (Calidris canutus) and Dunlins (Calidris alpina) to estimate evolutionary effective population size, population divergence times, and time to most recent common ancestor of genes in the samples. The gene trees for the two species contrast sharply: knot haplotypes were connected in a shallow, star phylogeny whereas Dunlin haplotypes were related in a deeper bifurcating genealogy. Divergence times of populations representing all six subspecies of knots are estimated to have occurred within the last 20 000 (95% CI: 5600–58 000) years, and evolutionary effective population sizes of females are small (Nef = 2000–14 000). We hypothesized that breeding knots were restricted to unglaciated regions of Eurasia during the last glacial maximum, and gradually expanded eastwards into Alaska, the high Canadian Arctic and Greenland as the ice melted. Population divergence times in ...

/pdf/population-divergence-times-and-historical-demography-in-red-1a4b2j6qeu.pdf

Population divergence times and historical demography in red knots and dunlins

The curassows comprise 14 species of sedentary Neotropical birds classified in four genera (Crax, Nothocrax, Mitu, and Pauxi) in the family Cracidae. Congeneric species have a striking pattern of allopatric distributions that might be attributable to vicariance, dispersal, or a combination of the two. To test those biogeographic hypotheses, a strongly supported phylogeny was needed, so that existing problems of taxonomic rank could be solved and a better understanding of the group's evolutionary history attained. We therefore estimated the phylogenetic relationships of all 14 species, on the basis of 6,929 sites of six different mitochondrial DNA regions, and reassessed the status of the four genera. Sequences from the ND4 gene favored a tree that was highly incongruent with the tree recovered using the other five gene regions. However, when the ND4 sequences were concatenated with the sequences of the other genes, the optimal phylogeny was unchanged from that derived for the other genes. That co...

Vicariant speciation of curassows (aves, cracidae): a hypothesis based on mitochondrial dna phylogeny

After journeying from the southern tip of South America, the red knots that appear on the shores of Delaware Bay in May arrive so thin that they look like sparrows. There they gorge themselves on the eggs of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), putting on a layer of fat so thick that they leave for their Arctic breeding grounds looking like plump doves. At least five other shorebird species use the bay as a spring migratory stopover. Among them, however, the red knot is the largest and stockiest. In its May-August breeding plumage, it also sports a distinctive breast of brilliant rusty red. Also described as pale salmon, this russet color extends up the neck and around the eyes, and bleeds somewhat into the patterned black, brown, gray and white colorations on the wings and back. The rump is whitish. The knot has a short, straight black bill and, during breeding season, dark brown/black legs. A small number of the adults arrive in the middle of their molt showing various amounts of the non-breeding plumage that is typical between September and April: a washed-out gray look with scaly white feather edgings, whitish flanks with dark barring and greenish legs. Juveniles are primarily gray, with a scaly pattern on the wings and dull yellow-olive legs. Passing through New Jersey again in August, adult red knots remain in breeding plumage and with many other species. During both the May and August migrations, whimbrels or Hudsonian curlews (Numenius phaeopus) look most similar to knots, but their breasts are duller, contrasting less with the rest of their bodies. Also, whimbrels are larger and their decurved bills are twice as long. As with most shorebirds, the long-winged, strong-flying knots fly in groups, sometimes with other species.

/pdf/red-knot-calidris-canutus-3ldpz9bmmp.pdf

Red Knot (Calidris canutus)

Colonization history of atlantic island common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) revealed by mitochondrial DNA.

The success of introduced species is frequently explained by their escape from natural enemies in the introduced region. We tested the enemy release hypothesis with respect to two well studied blood parasite genera (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in native and six introduced populations of the common myna Acridotheres tristis. Not all comparisons of introduced populations to the native population were consistent with expectations of the enemy release hypothesis. Native populations show greater overall parasite prevalence than introduced populations, but the lower prevalence in introduced populations is driven by low prevalence in two populations on oceanic islands (Fiji and Hawaii). When these are excluded, prevalence does not differ significantly. We found a similar number of parasite lineages in native populations compared to all introduced populations. Although there is some evidence that common mynas may have carried parasite lineages from native to introduced locations, and also that introduced populations may have become infected with novel parasite lineages, it may be difficult to differentiate between parasites that are native and introduced, because malarial parasite lineages often do not show regional or host specificity.

/pdf/prevalence-and-evolutionary-relationships-of-haematozoan-3j5ha722hv.pdf

Allan J. Baker

Papers

Population divergence times and historical demography in red knots and dunlins

Vicariant speciation of curassows (aves, cracidae): a hypothesis based on mitochondrial dna phylogeny

Red Knot (Calidris canutus)

Colonization history of atlantic island common chaffinches (Fringilla coelebs) revealed by mitochondrial DNA.

Prevalence and evolutionary relationships of haematozoan parasites in native versus introduced populations of common myna Acridotheres tristis