title: Climatic niche conservatism and ecological opportunity in the explosive radiation of arvicoline rodents (Arvicolinae, Cricetidae).
abstract: Climatic niche conservatism shapes patterns of diversity in many taxonomic groups, while ecological opportunity (EO) can trigger rapid speciation that is less constrained by the amount of time a lineage has occupied a given habitat. These two processes are well studied, but limited research has considered their joint and relative roles in shaping diversity patterns. We characterized climatic and biogeographic variables for 102 species of arvicoline rodents (Arvicolinae, Cricetidae), testing the effects of climatic niche conservatism and EO on arvicoline diversification as lineages transitioned between biogeographic regions. We found that the amount of time a lineage has occupied a precipitation niche is positively correlated with diversity along a precipitation gradient, suggesting climatic niche conservatism. In contrast, shift in diversification rate explained diversity patterns along a temperature gradient. Our results suggest that an indirect relationship exists between temperature and diversification that is associated with EO as arvicoline rodents colonized warm Palearctic environments. Climatic niche conservatism alone did not fully explain diversity patterns under density-dependence, highlighting the additional importance of EO-related processes in promoting the explosive radiation in arvicoline rodents and shaping diversity pattern among biogeographic regions and along climatic gradients.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China.|College of Life Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, PR China.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China.
authors.forename: Deyan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Bio-resources and Eco-environment (Ministry of Education), College of Life Sciences, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610064, China.
authors.forename: Yongjie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, PR China. yangqs@ioz.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Qisen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D063147:Animal Distribution; D000818:Animals; D003411:Arvicolinae / Q000235:genetics*; D002980:Climate; D017753:Ecosystem; D049810:Genetic Speciation; D014644:Genetic Variation; D058974:Phylogeography
keywords: Diversification rate; ecological opportunity; historical biogeography; macroevolution; time-for-speciation effect