Niche conservatism of Eulophia alta, a trans-Atlantic orchid species

Marta Kolanowska, Dariusz L. Szlachetko

Abstract


The genus Eulophia embraces over 230 species distributed through the tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas. In Neotropics it is represented by a sole species – E. alta. The aim of the presented study was to evaluate the difference between ecological niches occupied by American and African populations of this species based on the ecological niche modeling. The similarity between the glacial and present niches occupied by E. alta was calculated and the factors limiting the species occurrence were identified. Areas of seasonal tropical forest, tropical savanna and woodland served as refugia for the studied species during last glacial maximum and they were more widespread in Neotropics than in Africa. No significant niche shift after last glacial maximum was observed. The distribution of E. alta in its whole range is restricted mainly by temperature seasonality. The differences in the niches occupied by African and Neotropical populations of E. alta suggest preglacial disjunction of the species range and independent adaptation of both groups. Despite the significant range disjunction of E. alta the species is characterized by relatively high degree of niche conservatism.

Keywords


ecological niche modeling; last glacial maximum; Orchidaceae; trans-Atlantic disjunction

Full Text:

PDF

References


Renner S. Plant dispersal across the tropical Atlantic by wind and sea currents. Int J Plant Sci. 2004;165(S4):S23–S33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/383334

Thorne RF. Floristic relationships between tropical Africa and tropical America. In: Meggers BJ, Ayensu ES, Duckworth WD, editors. Tropical forest ecosystems in Africa and South America: a comparative review. Washington, WA: Smithsonian Institution; 1973. p. 27–47.

Manchester SR. Biogeographical relationships of North American Tertiary floras. Ann Mo Bot Gard. 1999;86(2):472–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2666183

Thulin M, Thiede J, Liede-Schumann S. Phylogeny and taxonomy of Tribulocarpus (Aizoaceae): a paraphyletic species and an adaptive shift from zoochorous trample burrs to anemochorous nuts. Taxon. 2012;61(1):55–66.

Rödder D, Lötters S. Niche shift or niche conservatism? Climatic properties of the native and invasive range of the Mediterranean Housegecko Hemidactylus turcicus. Glob Ecol Biogeogr. 2009;18(6):674–687. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00477.x

Cooper N, Freckleton RP, Jetz W. Phylogenetic conservatism of environmental niches in mammals. Proc R Soc B. 2011;278(1716):2384–2391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.2207

Ryan Shipley J, Contina A, Batbayar N, Bridge ES, Peterson AT, Kelly JF. Niche conservatism and disjunct populations: a case study with Painted Buntings (Passerina ciris). Auk. 2013;130(3):476–486. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/auk.2013.12151

Crisp MD, Cook LG. Phylogenetic niche conservatism: what are the underlying evolutionary and ecological causes? New Phytol. 2012;196(3):681–694. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04298.x

Algar AC, Kerr JT, Currie DJ. Evolutionary constraints on regional faunas: whom, but not how many. Ecol Lett. 2009;12(1):57–65. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01260.x

Wiens JJ, Donoghue MJ. Historical biogeography, ecology and species richness. Trends Ecol Evol. 2004;19(12):639–644. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2004.09.011

Wiens JJ, Graham CH. Niche conservatism: integrating evolution, ecology, and conservation biology. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst. 2005;36(1):519–539. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.36.102803.095431

Wiens JJ, Ackerly DD, Allen AP, Anacker BL, Buckley LB, Cornell HV, et al. Niche conservatism as an emerging principle in ecology and conservation biology: niche conservatism, ecology, and conservation. Ecol Lett. 2010;13(10):1310–1324. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01515.x

Losos JB. Phylogenetic niche conservatism, phylogenetic signal and the relationship between phylogenetic relatedness and ecological similarity among species. Ecol Lett. 2008;11(10):995–1003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01229.x

Lindqvist C, Albert VA. Origin of the Hawaiian endemic mints within North American Stachys (Lamiaceae). Am J Bot. 2002;89(10):1709–1724. http://dx.doi.org/10.3732/ajb.89.10.1709

Spalik K, Downie SR. Intercontinental disjunctions in Cryptotaenia (Apiaceae, Oenantheae): an appraisal using molecular data. J Biogeogr. 2007;34(12):2039–2054. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01752.x

Duchen P, Renner SS. The evolution of Cayaponia (Cucurbitaceae): repeated shifts from bat to bee pollination and long-distance dispersal to Africa 2–5 million years ago. Am J Bot. 2010;97(7):1129–1141. http://dx.doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0900385

Jurgens A, Bosch SR, Webber AC, Witt T, Frame D, Gottsberger G. Pollination biology of Eulophia alta (Orchidaceae) in Amazonia: effects of pollinator composition on reproductive success in different populations. Ann Bot. 2009;104(5):897–912. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcp191

Kolanowska M. Niche conservatism and the future potential range of Epipactis helleborine (Orchidaceae). PLoS ONE. 2013;8(10):e77352. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0077352

Kolanowska M, Konowalik K. Niche conservatism and future changes in the potential area coverage of Arundina graminifolia, an invasive orchid species from Southeast Asia. Biotropica. 2014;46(2):157–165. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/btp.12089

Kolanowska M. Glacial refugia and migration routes of the Neotropical genus Trizeuxis (Orchidaceae). Acta Soc Bot Pol. 2013;82(3):225–230. http://dx.doi.org/10.5586/asbp.2013.024

Thiers B. Index Herbariorum: a global directory of public herbaria and associated staff. New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium [Internet]. 2013 [cited 2013 Jan 10]; Available from: http://sweetgum.nybg.org/ih/

Hijmans RJ, Schreuder M, De la Cruz J, Guarino L. Using GIS to check co-ordinates of genebank accessions. Genet Resour Crop Evol. 1999;46(3):291–296. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008628005016

Pearson RG, Raxworthy CJ, Nakamura M, Townsend Peterson A. Predicting species distributions from small numbers of occurrence records: a test case using cryptic geckos in Madagascar: predicting species distributions with low sample sizes. J Biogeogr. 2006;34(1):102–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2006.01594.x

Elith J, Phillips SJ, Hastie T, Dudík M, Chee YE, Yates CJ. A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists: statistical explanation of MaxEnt. Divers Distrib. 2011;17(1):43–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00725.x

Phillips SJ, Dudík M, Schapire RE. A maximum entropy approach to species distribution modeling. In: ICML ‘04: proceedings of the twenty-first international conference on machine learning. New York, NY: ACM; 2004. p. 655–662.

Phillips SJ, Anderson RP, Schapire RE. Maximum entropy modeling of species geographic distributions. Ecol Modell. 2006;190(3–4):231–259. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026

Rodríguez-Robles JA, Jezkova T, Leal M. Climatic stability and genetic divergence in the tropical insular lizard Anolis krugi, the Puerto Rican ‘Lagartijo Jardinero de la Montaña. Mol Ecol. 2010;19(9):1860–1876. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04616.x

Kuemmerle T, Hickler T, Olofsson J, Schurgers G, Radeloff VC. Reconstructing range dynamics and range fragmentation of European bison for the last 8000 years: European bison range dynamics. Divers Distrib. 2012;18(1):47–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2011.00849.x

Hijmans RJ, Cameron SE, Parra JL, Jones PG, Jarvis A. Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int J Clim. 2005;25(15):1965–1978. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/joc.1276

Braconnot P, Otto-Bliesner B, Harrison S, Joussaume S, Peterchmitt JY, Abe-Ouchi A, et al. Results of PMIP2 coupled simulations of the mid-holocene and last glacial maximum – part 1: experiments and large-scale features. Clim Past. 2007;3(2):261–277. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/cp-3-261-2007

Urbina-Cardona JN, Loyola RD. Applying niche-based models to predict endangered-hylid potential distributions: are neotropical protected areas effective enough. Trop Conserv Sci. 2008;1(4):

–445.

Schoener TW. The anolis lizards of bimini: resource partitioning in a complex fauna. Ecology. 1968;49(4):704–726. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1935534

Warren DL, Glor RE, Turelli M. Environmental niche equivalency versus conservatism: quantitative approaches to niche evolution. Evolution. 2008;62(11):2868–2883. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00482.x

Olson JS, Watts JA, Allison LJ. Carbon in live vegetation of major world ecosystems. Report DOE/NBB-0037 for US Dept. of Energy. Washington, WA: Carbon Dioxide Research Division; 1983.

Stewart SL, Johnson TR, Dutra D, Kane M, Richardson L. Ecology, propagation and conservation of Eulophia alta L., a threatened Florida orchid. Gainesville, FL: Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; 2007.

Angetter LS, Lötters S, Rödder D. Climate niche shift in invasive species: the case of the brown anole. Biol J Linn Soc Lond. 2011;104(4):943–954. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2011.01780.x

Thuiller W. Patterns and uncertainties of species’ range shifts under climate change. Glob Chang Biol. 2004;10(12):2020–2027. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2004.00859.x

Jezkova T, Olah-Hemmings V, Riddle BR. Niche shifting in response to warming climate after the last glacial maximum: inference from genetic data and niche assessments in the chisel-toothed kangaroo rat (Dipodomys microps). Glob Chang Biol. 2011;17(11):3486–3502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02508.x

Veloz SD, Williams JW, Blois JL, He F, Otto-Bliesner B, Liu Z. No-analog climates and shifting realized niches during the late quaternary: implications for 21st-century predictions by species distribution models. Glob Chang Biol. 2012;18(5):1698–1713. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02635.x




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5586/asbp.2014.007

Journal ISSN:
  • 2083-9480 (online)
  • 0001-6977 (print; ceased since 2016)
This is an Open Access journal, which distributes its content under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, provided that the content is properly cited.
The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and aims to follow the COPE’s principles.
The journal publisher is a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association.
The journal content is indexed in Similarity Check, the Crossref initiative to prevent scholarly and professional plagiarism.
Publisher
Polish Botanical Society