Evolution of ecological differences in the Old World leaf warblers.

Sympatric species that belong to the same ecological guild usually differ in their behaviour and morphology, and these differences are often interpreted as adaptations to having to make use of different resources. Evidence supporting this interpretation comes from association between ecology and morphology among species, in which an a priori functional relationship is reasonable. But one problem with such comparisons is that members of a guild may be closely related, so the more closely related species can share a greater similarity in their morphology and ecology simply as a result of the lingering legacy of a common ancestor. In principle, the importance of historical legacy can be evaluated from phylogenetic relationships and times since divergence for all species, but this is rarely possible because these data are not available. Here we use a phylogeny for eight sympatric species of warbler in the genus Phylloscopus, based on their mitochondrial DNA sequences, to remove the effects of historical legacy. Without these effects, we find strong support for adaptive interpretations of among-species variation in habitat selection, prey-size choice and feeding method. Ecological variation along any of these three niche axes is associated with predictable morphological variation. We also find evidence for historical legacy in that more closely related species are often more similar behaviourally and morphologically. This paradoxical result can be reconciled because the most closely related species tend to differ along only one niche axis, habitat choice. In contrast, the evolution of prey-size choice and feeding method occurred rapidly and early in the diversification of this group. Once a new ecological zone was occupied, subsequent morphological change along these niche axes was limited, accounting for the similarity of closely related species.     

Speciation along environmental gradients

Traditional discussions of speciation are based on geographical patterns of species ranges. In allopatric speciation, long-term geographical isolation generates reproductively isolated and spatially segregated descendant species. In the absence of geographical barriers, diversification is hindered by gene flow. Yet a growing body of phylogenetic and experimental data suggests that closely related species often occur in sympatry or have adjacent ranges in regions over which environmental changes are gradual and do not prevent gene flow. Theory has identified a variety of evolutionary processes that can result in speciation under sympatric conditions, with some recent advances concentrating on the phenomenon of evolutionary branching. Here we establish a link between geographical patterns and ecological processes of speciation by studying evolutionary branching in spatially structured populations. We show that along an environmental gradient, evolutionary branching can occur much more easily than in non-spatial models. This facilitation is most pronounced for gradients of intermediate slope. Moreover, spatial evolutionary branching readily generates patterns of spatial segregation and abutment between the emerging species. Our results highlight the importance of local processes of adaptive divergence for geographical patterns of speciation, and caution against pitfalls of inferring past speciation processes from present biogeographical patterns.     

同域培养下大肠杆菌氮、磷含量的进化趋异研究

利用9株具有不同进化背景的大肠杆菌构成5个短期可竞争共存的祖先配对,在限制氮、磷资源的环境下,对5个进化组下6个重复家系进行了约1 100世代的选择实验,考察了这些细菌在进化前后菌体氮、磷质量分数w的变化,并评估了这些性状的趋异程度.研究发现:后代细菌w(氮)的变动范围在13.1%~14.2%,而w(磷)为1.70%~1.95%;不同进化组内,细菌氮、磷含量改变的模式不同;同域后代细菌的趋异模式也并不相同.推测细菌进化本身可能会产生许多独特的性状,连同生态相互作用一起,增加了结果的复杂性,需要在更精细的水平上寻找产生这种结果的原因.     

Non-random coextinctions in phylogenetically structured mutualistic networks

The interactions between plants and their animal pollinators and seed dispersers have moulded much of Earth's biodiversity. Recently, it has been shown that these mutually beneficial interactions form complex networks with a well-defined architecture that may contribute to biodiversity persistence. Little is known, however, about which ecological and evolutionary processes generate these network patterns. Here we use phylogenetic methods to show that the phylogenetic relationships of species predict the number of interactions they exhibit in more than one-third of the networks, and the identity of the species with which they interact in about half of the networks. As a consequence of the phylogenetic effects on interaction patterns, simulated extinction events tend to trigger coextinction cascades of related species. This results in a non-random pruning of the evolutionary tree and a more pronounced loss of taxonomic diversity than expected in the absence of a phylogenetic signal. Our results emphasize how the simultaneous consideration of phylogenetic information and network architecture can contribute to our understanding of the structure and fate of species-rich communities.     

Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation in Anolis lizards

Sexual dimorphism is widespread and substantial throughout the animal world. It is surprising, then, that such a pervasive source of biological diversity has not been integrated into studies of adaptive radiation, despite extensive and growing attention to both phenomena. Rather, most studies of adaptive radiation either group individuals without regard to sex or focus solely on one sex. Here we show that sexual differences contribute substantially to the ecomorphological diversity produced by the adaptive radiations of West Indian Anolis lizards: within anole species, males and females occupy mostly non-overlapping parts of morphological space; the overall extent of sexual variation is large relative to interspecific variation; and the degree of variation depends on ecological type. Thus, when sexual dimorphism in ecologically relevant traits is substantial, ignoring its contribution may significantly underestimate the adaptive component of evolutionary radiation. Conversely, if sexual dimorphism and interspecific divergence are alternative means of ecological diversification, then the degree of sexual dimorphism may be negatively related to the extent of adaptive radiation.     

An extant cichlid fish radiation emerged in an extinct Pleistocene lake

The haplochromine cichlid fish of the East African Great Lakes represent some of the fastest and most species-rich adaptive radiations known, but rivers in most of Africa accommodate only a few morphologically similar species of haplochromine cichlid fish. This has been explained by the wealth of ecological opportunity in large lakes compared with rivers. It is therefore surprising that the rivers of southern Africa harbour many, ecologically diverse haplochromines. Here we present genetic, morphological and biogeographical evidence suggesting that these riverine cichlids are products of a recent adaptive radiation in a large lake that dried up in the Holocene. Haplochromine species richness peaks steeply in an area for which geological data reveal the historical existence of Lake palaeo-Makgadikgadi. The centre of this extinct lake is now a saltpan north of the Kalahari Desert, but it once hosted a rapidly evolving fish species radiation, comparable in morphological diversity to that in the extant African Great Lakes. Importantly, this lake seeded all major river systems of southern Africa with ecologically diverse cichlids. This discovery reveals how local evolutionary processes operating during a short window of ecological opportunity can have a major and lasting effect on biodiversity on a continental scale.     

鸡油菌,喇叭菌和钉菇的25SrDNA部分序列及其系统学关系

从分子系统学角度出发,对鸡油菌属（Ｃａｎｔｈａｒｅｌｕｓ）、喇叭菌属（Ｃｒａｔｅｒｅｌｕｓ）和钉菇属（Ｇｏｍｐｈｕｓ）的模式种的２５ＳｒＤＮＡ部分序列进行了测定,并与另外１０目的１３个担子菌和１个接合菌的２５ＳｒＤＮＡ序列进行比较分析,以接合菌总状毛霉（Ｍｕｃｏｒｒａｃｅｍｏｓｕｓ）为外类群构建出这些担子菌的部分２５ＳｒＤＮＡ序列的系统树图,探讨它们３属之间及它们与其他担子菌的关系及其系统学上的意义．认为鸡油菌与同科的喇叭菌关系最为亲近,而钉菇属看来也应该归入鸡油菌目Ｃａｎｔｈａｒｅｌａｌｅｓ中,这与传统方法的分析结果较为一致;虽然鸡油菌类真菌又与各肉质的伞菌类群的关系相对较密切,但它应该有其相对独立的进化路线,将这一类真菌上升至目一级的分类阶元是比较恰当的;但钉菇目Ｇｏｍｐｈａｌｅｓ上升到目的水平是否恰当则有待更多的数据去证明．     

Phylogenetic position of Ephedra rhytidosperma, a species endemic to China： Evidence from chloroplast and ribosomal DNA sequences

The chloroplast genes matK and rbcL, ribosomal gene 18S and ITS regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA from Ephedra rhytidosperma, a species endemic to China, were sequenced and its phylogenetic position was investigated. Independent and combined phylogenetic analyses for the DNA sequences from 16 taxa representing 15 species of the genus Ephedra were performed using the maximum parsimony （MP）, neighbor-joining （N J）, minimum evolution （ME） and maximum likelihood （ML） methods. The results indicate that E. rhytidosperma is closely related to E. equisetina. The divergence time between them is estimated to be 10.85±2.44 Ma based on the results of the relative-rate tests and the evolutionary rate of rbcL gene.     

Competition and phylogeny determine community structure in Müllerian co-mimics

Until recently, the study of negative and antagonistic interactions (for example, competition and predation) has dominated our understanding of community structure, maintenance and assembly. Nevertheless, a recent theoretical model suggests that positive interactions (for example, mutualisms) may counterbalance competition, facilitating long-term coexistence even among ecologically undifferentiated species. Müllerian mimics are mutualists that share the costs of predator education and are therefore ideally suited for the investigation of positive and negative interactions in community dynamics. The sole empirical test of this model in a Müllerian mimetic community supports the prediction that positive interactions outweigh the negative effects of spatial overlap (without quantifying resource acquisition). Understanding the role of trophic niche partitioning in facilitating the evolution and stability of Müllerian mimetic communities is now of critical importance, but has yet to be formally investigated. Here we show that resource partitioning and phylogeny determine community structure and outweigh the positive effects of Müllerian mimicry in a species-rich group of neotropical catfishes. From multiple, independent reproductively isolated allopatric communities displaying convergently evolved colour patterns, 92% consist of species that do not compete for resources. Significant differences in phylogenetically conserved traits (snout morphology and body size) were consistently linked to trait-specific resource acquisition. Thus, we report the first evidence, to our knowledge, that competition for trophic resources and phylogeny are pivotal factors in the stable evolution of Müllerian mimicry rings. More generally, our work demonstrates that competition for resources is likely to have a dominant role in the structuring of communities that are simultaneously subject to the effects of both positive and negative interactions.     

Predator-induced behaviour shifts and natural selection in field-experimental lizard populations

The role of behaviour in evolutionary change has long been debated. On the one hand, behavioural changes may expose individuals to new selective pressures by altering the way that organisms interact with the environment, thus driving evolutionary divergence. Alternatively, behaviour can act to retard evolutionary change: by altering behavioural patterns in the face of new environmental conditions, organisms can minimize exposure to new selective pressures. This constraining influence of behaviour has been put forward as an explanation for evolutionary stasis within lineages and niche conservatism within clades. Nonetheless, the hypothesis that behavioural change prevents natural selection from operating in new environments has never been experimentally tested. We conducted a controlled and replicated experimental study of selection in entirely natural populations; we demonstrate that lizards alter their habitat use in the presence of an introduced predator, but that these behavioural shifts do not prevent patterns of natural selection from changing in experimental populations.     

山地荒漠草原不同植物群落物种-多度关系分析

在群落样方调查的基础上,计算群落物种重要值,确定群落类型.对群落物种重要值采用分割线段模型(broken stick model)、对数级数分布(Log series distr ibution)、对数正态分布(Lognormal distribution)、几何级数分布(Geometric series distribution)等4个种-多度模型进行拟合.结果表明石质山坡(长芒草Stipa bungeana-冷蒿Artemisia frigida)群落对数级数拟合结果更好,土质山坡群落(短花针茅Stipa brevifora-长芒草Stipa bungeana)对数正态分布拟合更好,说明了2个群落结构是对2个样地环境特点与放牧干扰相互作用的响应.沙化草地(油蒿Artemisiaordosica-刺叶柄棘豆Oxytropis aciphlla)群落中油蒿处于极优势地位,占据整个群落的大多数生态空间.拟合检验表明该山地草地植被物种分布格局较符合随机生态位假说和生态位占领假说,严重的放牧干扰不仅降低了优势物种在群落中的优势程度,使次优势物种及其他物种也没能较好的发育,说明外部非生物环境对群落胁迫程度较大.     

缙云山特有植物缙云黄芩种群生态位研究

采用Levins生态位宽度、Hurlbert生态位宽度及Pianka生态位重叠等计算公式,测定了缙云黄芩(ScutellariatsinyunensisC Y WuetS Chow)所在群落中草本层物种的生态位宽度和生态位重叠.结果显示:缙云黄芩的生态位宽度较大,说明该种生态适应幅度较大;与其主要伴生物种间的生态位重叠也较大,表明它们对资源利用的相似程度较高.     

Host-plant adaptation drives the parallel evolution of reproductive isolation

Parallel evolution of similar traits in independent populations that inhabit ecologically similar environments strongly implicates natural selection as the cause of evolution. Parallel speciation is a special form of parallel evolution where traits that determine reproductive isolation evolve repeatedly, in closely related populations, as by-products of adaptation to ecological conditions. The outcome of such parallel evolution is that ecologically divergent pairs of populations exhibit greater levels of reproductive isolation than ecologically similar pairs of populations of a similar or younger age. The parallel evolution of reproductive isolation provides strong evidence for natural selection in the process of speciation, but only one conclusive example from nature is known. Populations of the walking-stick insect Timema cristinae that use different host-plant species have diverged in body size and shape, host preference, behaviour and the relative frequency of two highly cryptic colour-pattern morphs. Here we report that divergent selection for host adaptation, and not genetic drift, has promoted the parallel evolution of sexual isolation in this species. Our findings represent a clear demonstration that host-plant adaptation can play a crucial and repeatable role in the early stages of speciation.     

Multiplex amplification of the mammoth mitochondrial genome and the evolution of Elephantidae

In studying the genomes of extinct species, two principal limitations are typically the small quantities of endogenous ancient DNA and its degraded condition, even though products of up to 1,600 base pairs (bp) have been amplified in rare cases. Using small overlapping polymerase chain reaction products, longer stretches of sequences or even whole mitochondrial genomes can be reconstructed, but this approach is limited by the number of amplifications that can be performed from rare samples. Thus, even from well-studied Pleistocene species such as mammoths, ground sloths and cave bears, no DNA sequences of more than about 1,000 bp have been reconstructed. Here we report the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Pleistocene woolly mammoth Mammuthus primigenius. We used about 200 mg of bone and a new approach that allows the simultaneous retrieval of multiple sequences from small amounts of degraded DNA. Our phylogenetic analyses show that the mammoth was more closely related to the Asian than to the African elephant. However, the divergence of mammoth, African and Asian elephants occurred over a short time, corresponding to only about 7% of the total length of the phylogenetic tree for the three evolutionary lineages.     

盐度影响珠江口浮游细菌形成特殊生态位

通过对珠江口水域进行水样的高通量测序, 获得 16S rRNA 基因序列, 分析结果表明, 盐度是影响珠江口浮游细菌Alpha和Beta多样性的主要环境参数之一, 并且低盐度样品中浮游细菌具有相对高的遗传多样性。将盐度分为低、中、高3个组, 通过群落组成分析验证表明, 该研究区域内总样本与盐度分组样本浮游细菌的优势菌和核心菌的分类学信息差异较大。总样本中优势菌是变形杆菌门, 核心菌多为酸杆菌门。低盐度组样本中核心菌主要为C111科, 中盐度和高盐度组均为OCS111科, 来自酸杆菌门。低盐度浮游细菌与中高盐度浮游细菌的核心菌物种完全不重合。对盐度进行交叉细分, 并对浮游细菌进行共发生网络分析, 结果表明, 细分的盐度分组下, 珠江口浮游细菌群落形成紧密联系且彼此独立的模块, 且模块内部物种组成关系复杂。     

Field parameterization and experimental test of the neutral theory of biodiversity

Ecologists would like to explain general patterns observed across multi-species communities, such as species-area and abundance-frequency relationships, in terms of the fundamental processes of birth, death and migration underlying the dynamics of all constituent species. The unified neutral theory of biodiversity and related theories based on these fundamental population processes have successfully recreated general species-abundance patterns without accounting for either the variation among species and individuals or resource-releasing processes such as predation and disturbance, long emphasized in ecological theory. If ecological communities can be described adequately without estimating variation in species and their interactions, our understanding of ecological community organization and the predicted consequences of reduced biodiversity and environmental change would shift markedly. Here, I introduce a strong method to test the neutral theory that combines field parameterization of the underlying population dynamics with a field experiment, and apply it to a rocky intertidal community. Although the observed abundance-frequency distribution of the system follows that predicted by the neutral theory, the neutral theory predicts poorly the field experimental results, indicating an essential role for variation in species interactions.     

云南富源光皮桦种群与主要伴生树种生态位研究

运用Levins和Shannon-Wiener生态位宽度指数,对云南富源县光皮桦种群及其主要伴生树种的生态位进行了研究。结果表明:光皮桦生态位宽度最大,杉木、华山松次之,其他主要伴生树种的生态位宽度均较小,表明光皮桦对环境具有广泛的适应性,在群落中优势地位明显。光皮桦与杉木、华山松的生态位相似性比例较大,对资源有共享趋势;光皮桦与其他树种的生态位相似性比例较小。光皮桦群落中主要树种间的生态位重叠较低,表明主要树种间生态位分化程度较高,种间竞争关系较弱。     

基于系统发育和功能性状的森林群落构建机制

群落物种共存机制是生态学研究的重要论题。共存物种的生态和进化相似性是用于验证群落构建机制的关键信息之一,生态学家常用系统发育和基于功能性状的方法间接或直接估算相似性,从而揭示驱动群落构建的主要生态学过程。系统发育分析方法和基于功能性状的方法均能检验生境过滤和竞争排斥过程在群落构建中的作用,并为解决生态位理论和中性理论之争提供新的视角。根据现代物种共存理论,在不同的功能性状进化模式下,不同生态过程构建的群落功能结构和系统发育结构可能不同,聚集的群落系统发育结构可能在性状进化保守的情况下由生境过滤过程构建,也有可能在性状趋同进化的情况下由竞争排斥过程构建而成,因此检验功能性状系统发育信号对于推断群落构建机制显得十分必要,联合系统发育和功能性状的研究将能更加精确地推断驱动群落构建的主要生态过程。联合系统发育和功能性状研究干扰和次生林演替对群落系统发育结构物种共存机制的影响,将有助于认识群落物种多样性对干扰的响应及不同演替阶段群落的构建机制,为群落的管理和恢复提供依据。