Refugia, colonization and diversification of an arid-adapted bird: coincident patterns between genetic data and ecological niche modelling.
Phylogeographical studies are common in boreal and temperate species from the Palaearctic, but scarce in arid-adapted species. We used nuclear and mitochondrial markers to investigate phylogeography and to estimate chronology of colonization events of the trumpeter finch Bucanetes githagineus, an arid-adapted bird. We used 271 samples from 16 populations, most of which were fresh samples but including some museum specimens. Microsatellite data showed no clear grouping according to the sampling locations. Microsatellite and mitochondrial data showed the clearest differentiation between Maghreb and Canary Islands and between Maghreb and Western Sahara. Mitochondrial data suggest differentiation between different Maghreb populations and among Maghreb and Near East populations, between Iberian Peninsula and Canary Islands, as well as between Western Sahara and Maghreb. Our coalescence analyses indicate that the trumpeter finch colonized North Africa during the humid Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS5) period of the Sahara region 125 000 years ago. We constructed an ecological niche model (ENM) to estimate the geographical distribution of climatically suitable habitats for the trumpeter finch. We tested whether changes in the species range in relation to glacial-interglacial cycles could be responsible for observed patterns of genetic diversity and structure. Modelling results matched with those from genetic data as the species' potential range increases in interglacial scenarios (in the present climatic scenario and during MIS5) and decreases in glacial climates (during the last glacial maximum, LGM, 21 000 years ago). Our results suggest that the trumpeter finch responded to Pleistocene climatic changes by expanding and contracting its range.
Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, E-04120, Almería, Spain.
Rafael
R
Barrientos
Department of Biology, University of Oulu, POB 3000, FIN-90014, Oulu, Finland.
Laura
L
Kvist
Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, E-04120, Almería, Spain.
Andrés
A
Barbosa
Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, E-04120, Almería, Spain.
Francisco
F
Valera
Department of Biology and Biotechnology, American University of Madaba, Madaba, Jordan.
Fares
F
Khoury
Department of Ecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Viničná, 7, 128 44, Praha 2, Praha, Czech Republic.
Sara
S
Varela
Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Ctra. de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, E-04120, Almería, Spain.
Eulalia
E
Moreno
D000349:Africa; D000352:Africa, Northern; D000818:Animals; D057231:Climate Change; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D017753:Ecosystem; D046369:Finches / Q000145:classification*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008877:Middle East; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058974:Phylogeography; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013030:Spain
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
Bucanetes githagineus; Mediterranean basin; climate change; microsatellites; mitochondrial DNA; range expansion