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1. Evolutionarily labile dispersal behavior and discontinuous habitats enhance population differentiation in island versus continentally distributed swallows

   https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad179  

   Broyles, Grant G; Myers, Brian M; Friedman, Nicholas R; Gawin, Dency F; Mohd-Taib, Farah S; Sahlan, Penigran G; Seneviratne, Sampath S; de Silva, N Chamalka; Lekamlage, Thilini T; Hund, Amanda K; et al (October 2023, Evolution)

   Huang, Jen-Pan; Zelditch, Miriam (Ed.)

   The causes of population divergence in vagile groups remain a paradox in evolutionary biology: dispersive species should be able to colonize new areas, a prerequisite for allopatric speciation, but dispersal also facilitates gene flow, which erodes population differentiation. Strong dispersal ability has been suggested to enhance divergence in patchy habitats and inhibit divergence in continuous landscapes, but empirical support for this hypothesis is lacking. Here we compared patterns of population divergence in a dispersive clade of swallows distributed across both patchy and continuous habitats. The Pacific Swallow (Hirundo tahitica) has an insular distribution throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific, while its sister species, the Welcome Swallow (H. neoxena), has a continental distribution in Australia. We used whole-genome data to demonstrate strong genetic structure and limited introgression among insular populations, but not among continental populations. Demographic models show that historic changes in habitat connectivity have contributed to population structure within the clade. Swallows appear to exhibit evolutionarily labile dispersal behavior in which they reduce dispersal propensity after island colonization despite retaining strong flight ability. Our data support the hypothesis that fragmented habitats enhance population differentiation in vagile groups, and suggest that labile dispersal behavior is a key mechanism underlying this pattern. 

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2. Riverscape genomics of cichlid fishes in the lower Congo: Uncovering mechanisms of diversification in an extreme hydrological regime

   https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1111/mec.16495  

   Naoko, P. Kurata; Michael, J. Hickerson; Sandra, L. Hoffberg; Ned, Gardiner; Melanie, L. J.; S. Elizabeth, Alter (May 2022, Molecular ecology)

   Freshwater fishes are notably diverse, given that freshwater habitat represents a tiny fraction of the earth's surface, but the mechanisms generating this diversity remain poorly understood. Rivers provide excellent models to understand how freshwater diversity is generated and maintained across heterogeneous habitats. In particular, the lower Congo River (LCR) consists of a dynamic hydroscape exhibiting extraordinary aquatic biodiversity, endemicity, morphological and ecological specialization. Previous studies have suggested that the numerous high-energy rapids throughout the LCR form physical barriers to gene flow, thus facilitating diversification and speciation, generating ichthyofaunal diversity. However, this hypothesis has not been fully explored using genome-wide SNPs for fish species distributed across the LCR. Here, we examined four lamprologine cichlids endemic to the LCR that are distributed along the river without range overlap. Using genome-wide SNP data, we tested the hypotheses that high-energy rapids serve as physical barriers to gene flow that generate genetic divergence at interspecific and intraspecific levels, and that gene flow occurs primarily in a downstream direction. Our results are consistent with the prediction that powerful rapids sometimes act as a barrier to gene flow but also suggest that, at certain temporal and spatial scales, they may provide multidirectional dispersal opportunities for riverine rheophilic cichlid fishes. These results highlight the complexity of diversification processes in rivers and the importance of assessing such processes across different riverscapes. 

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3. Dewlap colour variation in Anolis sagrei is maintained among habitats within islands of the West Indies

   https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.14002  

   Scherrer, Raphaël; Donihue, Colin M.; Reynolds, Robert Graham; Losos, Jonathan B.; Geneva, Anthony J. (May 2022, Journal of Evolutionary Biology)

   Abstract Animal signals evolve in an ecological context. Locally adapting animal sexual signals can be especially important for initiating or reinforcing reproductive isolation during the early stages of speciation. Previous studies have demonstrated that dewlap colour inAnolislizards can be highly variable between populations in relation to both biotic and abiotic adaptive drivers at relatively large geographical scales. Here, we investigated differentiation of dewlap colouration among habitat types at a small spatial scale, within multiple islands of the West Indies, to test the hypothesis that similar local adaptive processes occur over smaller spatial scales. We explored variation in dewlap colouration in the most widespread species of anole,Anolis sagrei, across three characteristic habitats spanning the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, namely beach scrub, primary coppice forest and mangrove forest. Using reflectance spectrometry paired with supervised machine learning, we found significant differences in spectral properties of the dewlap between habitats within small islands, sometimes over very short distances. Passive divergence in dewlap phenotype associated with isolation‐by‐distance did not seem to explain our results. On the other hand, these habitat‐specific dewlap differences varied in magnitude and direction across islands, and thus, our primary test for adaptation—parallel responses across islands—was not supported. We suggest that neutral processes or selection could be involved in several ways, including sexual selection. Our results shed new light on the scale at which signal colour polymorphism can be maintained in the presence of gene flow, and the relative role of local adaptation and other processes in driving these patterns of dewlap colour variation across islands. 

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4. How Veeries vary: Whole genome sequencing resolves genetic structure in a long-distance migratory bird

   https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukad061  

   Kimmitt, Abigail_A; Pegan, Teresa_M; Jones, Andrew_W; Winker, Kevin; Winger, Benjamin_M (December 2023, Ornithology)

   Abstract In high-latitude species with high dispersal ability, such as long-distance migratory birds, populations are often assumed to exhibit little genetic structure due to high gene flow or recent postglacial expansion. We sequenced over 120 low-coverage whole genomes from across the breeding range of a long-distance migratory bird, the Veery (Catharus fuscescens), revealing strong evidence for isolation by distance. Additionally, we found distinct genetic structure between boreal, western montane U.S., and southern Appalachian sampling regions. We suggest that population genetic structure in this highly migratory species is detectable with the high resolution afforded by whole-genomic data because, similar to many migratory birds, the Veery exhibits high breeding-site fidelity, which likely limits gene flow. Resolution of isolation by distance across the breeding range was sufficient to assign likely breeding origins of individuals sampled in this species’ poorly understood South American nonbreeding range, demonstrating the potential to assess migratory connectivity in this species using genomic data. As the Veery’s breeding range extends across both historically glaciated and unglaciated regions in North America, we also evaluated whether contemporary patterns of structure and genetic diversity are consistent with historical population isolation in glacial refugia. We found that patterns of genetic diversity did not support southern montane regions (southern Appalachians or western U.S. mountains) as glacial refugia. Overall, our findings suggest that isolation by distance yields subtle associations between genetic structure and geography across the breeding range of this highly vagile species even in the absence of obvious historical vicariance or contemporary barriers to dispersal. 

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5. Responses to climate change – insights and limitations from herbaceous plant model systems

   https://doi.org/10.32942/X22K84  

   Kooyers, Nicholas; Anderson, Jill; Angert, Amy; Avolio, Meghan; Campbell, Diane; Exposito-Alonso, Moises; Juenger, Thomas; Moeller, David; Napier, Joseph; Sheth, Seema (March 2025, EcoEvoRxiv)

   Herbaceous plant species have been the focus of extensive, long-term research into climate change responses, but there has been little effort to synthesize results and predicted outlooks from different model species. We summarize research on climate change responses for eight intensively-studied herbaceous plant species. We establish generalities across species, examine limitations, interrogate biases, and propose a path forward. All six forb species exhibit reduced fitness, maladaptation, and/or population declines in at least part of the range. Plasticity alone is likely not sufficient to allow adjustment to shifting climates. Most model species also have spatially-restricted dispersal that may limit genetic and evolutionary rescue. These results are surprising, given that these species are widespread, span large elevation ranges, and generally have substantial levels of genetic and phenotypic variation. The focal species have diverse life histories, reproductive strategies, and habitats, but most are native to North America. Thus, these species may poorly represent rare species, habitat specialists, or species endemic to other parts of the world. We encourage researchers to design demographic and field experiments that evaluate plant traits and fitness in contemporary and potential future conditions across the full life cycle, and that consider the effects of climate change on biotic interactions. 

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