Abstract Detail

Systematics

Folk, Ryan [1], Visger, Clayton [1], Guralnick, Robert [2], Soltis, Douglas [3], Soltis, Pamela  S. [4].

Ancestral reconstruction of habitat shifts from ecological niche models of extant species: A pipeline with applications to ancestral hybridization in Heuchera (Saxifragaceae).

An increasingly digitized collections infrastructure is enabling researchers to answer critical evolutionary questions about ecological niche evolution, including the lability of ecological niche occupancy over time and the identity of potential drivers of niche shifts. The combination of ecological niche modeling and ancestral niche reconstruction results in a rigorous, quantitative approach to these questions, yet progress in this area is limited by the lack of easily used tools for non-programmers.We present a pipeline that automates the extraction of niche occupancy variables from niche models to output fully annotated trees with ancestral values. Several novel components of our approach are also introduced: (1) the integration of these with a Bayesian continuous ancestral method that allows the calculation of nodal credibility intervals; (2) the option to reconstruct ancestral nodes holistically from reduced PCA axes of environmental data.As an empirical case study, we demonstrate how the integration of our streamlined ancestral reconstruction approach with modern and paleoclimatic modeling can corroborate hypotheses concerning historical range dynamics. Chloroplast incongruence in Heuchera has previously been demonstrated; coalescent simulations favored a hypothesis of hybridization over incomplete lineage sorting. Several putative ancient gene flow events involve lineages that are currently allopatric. We show the application of geographic range reconstructions of ancestral species on a dated phylogeny to corroborate or falsify historical sympatry or parapatry among modern-day allopatric species.

1 - University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
2 - University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
3 - University of Florida, Dept. of Biology, 1659 Museum Road, Gainesville, Florida, 32611, United States
4 - University Of Florida, Florida Museum Of Natural History, PO BOX 117800, Gainesville, FL, 32611-7800, USA, 352/273-1964

Keywords:
ecological niche modeling
ENMs
hybridization
reticulation
pipeline
phylogenomics.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 41, Basal Rosids & Rosids I
Location: 101/Savannah International Trade and Convention Center
Date: Wednesday, August 3rd, 2016
Time: 8:15 AM
Number: 41002
Abstract ID:74
Candidate for Awards:None