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1. Convergent niche shifts of endangered parrots (genus Amazona ) during successful establishment in urban southern California

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13817  

   Ramirez, Brenda R. ; Freeland, Rowdy J. ; Muhlheim, Allison ; Zellmer, Amanda J. ; DeRaad, Devon A. ; Kirsch, Eliza J. ; Mutchler, Marquette J. ; Secor, Maeve B. ; Reckling, Kelsey R. ; Schedl, Margaret E. ; et al ( February 2024 , Diversity and Distributions)

   Introduced species offer insight on whether and how organisms can shift their ecological niches during translocation. The genusAmazonaoffers a clear test case, where sister species Red‐crowned (A. viridigenalis) and Lilac‐crowned Parrots (A. finschi) have established breeding populations in southern California following introduction via the pet trade from Mexico where they do not coexist. After establishment in the 1980s, introduced population sizes have increased, with mixed species flocks found throughout urban Los Angeles. Here, we investigate the differences between the environmental conditions of the native and introduced ranges of these now co‐occurring species.

   Southern California and Mexico.

   Using environmental data on climate and habitat from their native and introduced ranges, we tested whether Red‐crowned and Lilac‐crowned Parrots have divergent realized niches between their native ranges, and whether each species has significantly shifted its realized niche to inhabit urban southern California. We also analysed data from Texas and Florida introductions of Red‐crowned Parrots for comparative analysis.

   There are significant differences in the native‐range niches of both parrot species, but a convergence into a novel, shared environmental niche into urban southern California, characterized by colder temperatures, less tree cover and lower rainfall. Texas and Florida Red‐crowned Parrots also show evidence for niche shifts with varying levels of niche conservatism through the establishment of somewhat different realized niches.

   Despite significant niche shifts, introduced parrots are thriving, suggesting a broad fundamental niche and an ability to exploit urban resources. Unique niche shifts in different U.S. introductions indicate thatAmazonaparrots can adapt to diverse environmental conditions, with cities offering a resource niche and the timing of introduction playing a crucial role. Cities can potentially serve as refugia for threatened parrot species, but the risk of hybridization between species emphasizes the need for ongoing monitoring and genetic investigations.

    

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2. Fine‐scale structure among mesophotic populations of the great star coral Montastraea cavernosa revealed by SNP genotyping

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6340  

   Drury, Crawford ; Pérez Portela, Rocío ; Serrano, Xaymara M. ; Oleksiak, Marjorie ; Baker, Andrew C. ( June 2020 , Ecology and Evolution)

   Abstract Mesophotic reefs (30‐150 m) have been proposed as potential refugia that facilitate the recovery of degraded shallow reefs following acute disturbances such as coral bleaching and disease. However, because of the technical difficulty of collecting samples, the connectivity of adjacent mesophotic reefs is relatively unknown compared with shallower counterparts. We used genotyping by sequencing to assess fine‐scale genetic structure of Montastraea cavernosa at two sites at Pulley Ridge, a mesophotic coral reef ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico, and downstream sites along the Florida Reef Tract. We found differentiation between reefs at Pulley Ridge (~68 m) and corals at downstream upper mesophotic depths in the Dry Tortugas (28–36 m) and shallow reefs in the northern Florida Keys (Key Biscayne, ~5 m). The spatial endpoints of our study were distinct, with the Dry Tortugas as a genetic intermediate. Most striking were differences in population structure among northern and southern sites at Pulley Ridge that were separated by just 12km. Unique patterns of clonality and outlier loci allele frequency support these sites as different populations and suggest that the long‐distance horizontal connectivity typical of shallow‐water corals may not be typical for mesophotic systems in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. We hypothesize that this may be due to the spawning of buoyant gametes, which commits propagules to the surface, resulting in greater dispersal and lower connectivity than typically found between nearby shallow sites. Differences in population structure over small spatial scales suggest that demographic constraints and/or environmental disturbances may be more variable in space and time on mesophotic reefs compared with their shallow‐water counterparts. 

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3. DNA sequencing of type material and newly collected specimens reveals two heterotypic synonyms for Harveylithon munitum (Metagoniolithoideae, Corallinales, Rhodophyta) and three new species

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jpy.13161  

   Richards, Joseph L. ; Schmidt, William E. ; Fredericq, Suzanne ; Sauvage, Thomas ; Peña, Viviana ; Le Gall, Line ; Mateo‐Cid, Luz Elena ; Mendoza‐González, Angela Catalina ; Hughey, Jeffery R. ; Gabrielson, Paul W. ; et al ( May 2021 , Journal of Phycology)

   Nongeniculate coralline algae are difficult to identify based solely on morpho‐anatomy. To address the systematics of several taxonomically challenging taxa, we analyzed DNA sequences of a short portion (118–296 base pairs) of the 3′ end of therbcL gene from three type specimens. The analyses revealed thatHarveylithon munitum(basionym:Lithophyllum munitum), described in 1906 from Cave Cays, Exuma Chain, Bahamas, is conspecific with bothGoniolithon accretumandGoniolithon affine, described in 1906 from Sand Key, Florida and in 1907 from Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, respectively.Lithophyllum munitumandG. accretumwere described in the same 1906 publication and have equal priority. We have selected the currently accepted and most commonly used nameH. munitumto apply to this entity. Comparative analyses ofrbcL,psbA, UPA, COI, and LSU sequences from contemporary field‐collected specimens revealed thatH. munitumcurrently inhabits mesophotic rhodolith beds in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, as well as the intertidal zone in the Florida Keys, Honduras, Atlantic Mexico, Caribbean Panama, and Guadeloupe, French West Indies. Species delimitation analyses reveal that the Western Atlantic and AustralianH. munitumpopulations may be separate species. Two new species ofHarveylithonfrom the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and one new species from the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Red Sea were also identified in the analyses and are described.

    

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4. An island ‘endemic’ born out of hybridization between introduced lineages

   https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16990  

   Salter, Jessie F. ; Brumfield, Robb T. ; Faircloth, Brant C. ( May 2023 , Molecular Ecology)

   Humans have profoundly impacted the distribution of plant and animal species over thousands of years. The most direct example of these effects is human‐mediated movement of individuals, either through translocation of individuals within their range or through the introduction of species to new habitats. While human involvement may be suspected in species with obvious range disjunctions, it can be difficult to detect natural versus human‐mediated dispersal events for populations at the edge of a species' range, and this uncertainty muddles how we understand the evolutionary history of populations and broad biogeographical patterns. Studies combining genetic data with archaeological, linguistic and historical evidence have confirmed prehistoric examples of human‐mediated dispersal; however, it is unclear whether these methods can disentangle recent dispersal events, such as species translocated by European colonizers during the past 500 years. We use genomic DNA from historical museum specimens and historical records to evaluate three hypotheses regarding the timing and origin of Northern Bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) in Cuba, whose status as an endemic or introduced population has long been debated. We discovered that bobwhites from southern Mexico arrived in Cuba between the 12th and 16th centuries, followed by the subsequent introduction of bobwhites from the southeastern USA to Cuba between the 18th and 20th centuries. These dates suggest the introduction of bobwhites to Cuba was human‐mediated and concomitant with Spanish colonial shipping routes between Veracruz, Mexico and Havana, Cuba during this period. Our results identify endemic Cuban bobwhites as a genetically distinct population born of hybridization between divergent, introduced lineages.

    

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5. Constrained body shape among highly genetically divergent allopatric lineages of the supralittoral isopod Ligia occidentalis (Oniscidea)

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1984  

   Santamaria, Carlos A. ; Mateos, Mariana ; DeWitt, Thomas J. ; Hurtado, Luis A. ( February 2016 , Ecology and Evolution)

   Multiple highly divergent lineages have been identified withinLigia occidentalis sensu lato, a rocky supralittoral isopod distributed along a ~3000 km latitudinal gradient that encompasses several proposed marine biogeographic provinces and ecoregions in the eastern Pacific. Highly divergent lineages have nonoverlapping geographic distributions, with distributional limits that generally correspond with sharp environmental changes. Crossbreeding experiments suggest postmating reproductive barriers exist among some of them, and surveys of mitochondrial and nuclear gene markers do not show evidence of hybridization. Populations are highly isolated, some of which appear to be very small; thus, the effects of drift are expected to reduce the efficiency of selection. Large genetic divergences among lineages, marked environmental differences in their ranges, reproductive isolation, and/or high isolation of populations may have resulted in morphological differences inL. occidentalis, not detected yet by traditional taxonomy. We used landmark‐based geometric morphometric analyses to test for differences in body shape among highly divergent lineages ofL. occidentalis, and among populations within these lineages. We analyzed a total of 492 individuals from 53 coastal localities from the southern California Bight to Central Mexico, including the Gulf of California. We conducted discriminant function analyses (DFAs) on body shape morphometrics to assess morphological variation among genetically differentiated lineages and their populations. We also tested for associations between phylogeny and morphological variation, and whether genetic divergence is correlated to multivariate morphological divergence. We detected significant differences in body shape among highly divergent lineages, and among populations within these lineages. Nonetheless, neither lineages nor populations can be discriminated on the basis of body shape, because correct classification rates of cross‐validatedDFAs were low. Genetic distance and phylogeny had weak to no effect on body shape variation. The supralittoral environment appears to exert strong stabilizing selection and/or strong functional constraints on body shape inL. occidentalis, thereby leading to morphological stasis in this isopod.

    

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