The interplay of spatial and climatic landscapes in the genetic distribution of a South American parrot

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_A9C854A84048
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
The interplay of spatial and climatic landscapes in the genetic distribution of a South American parrot
Journal
Journal of Biogeography
Author(s)
Masello J.F., Montano V., Quillfeldt P., Nuhlíčková S., Wikelski M., Moodley Y.
ISSN
1365-2699
ISSN-L
0305-0270
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2015
Volume
42
Number
6
Pages
1077-1090
Language
english
Abstract
AimOur aim was to understand the interplay of heterogeneous climatic and spatial landscapes in shaping the distribution of nuclear microsatellite variation in burrowing parrots, Cyanoliseus patagonus. Given the marked phenotypic differences between populations of burrowing parrots we hypothesized an important role of geographical as well climatic heterogeneity in the population structure of this species.
LocationSouthern South America.
MethodsWe applied a landscape genetics approach to investigate the explicit patterns of genetic spatial autocorrelation based on both geography and climate using spatial principal component analysis (sPCA). This necessitated a novel statistical estimation of the species climatic landscape, considering temperature- and precipitation-based variables separately to evaluate their weight in shaping the distribution of genetic variation in our model system.
ResultsGeographical and climatic heterogeneity successfully explained molecular variance in burrowing parrots. sPCA divided the species distribution into two main areas, Patagonia and the pre-Andes, which were connected by an area of geographical and climatic transition. Moreover, sPCA revealed cryptic and conservation-relevant genetic structure: the pre-Andean populations and the transition localities were each divided into two groups, each management units for conservation.
Main conclusionssPCA, a method originally developed for spatial genetics, allowed us to unravel the genetic structure related to spatial and climatic landscapes and to visualize these patterns in landscape space. These novel climatic inferences underscore the importance of our modified sPCA approach in revealing how climatic variables can drive cryptic patterns of genetic structure, making the approach potentially useful in the study of any species distributed over a climatically heterogeneous landscape.
Keywords
Argentina, Aves, burrowing parrot, Chile, Cyanoliseus patagonus, climatic landscape, genetic structure, Psittaciformes, spatial landscape, spatial principal component analysis
Web of science
Create date
21/01/2015 16:30
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:14
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