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Phylogeny And Population Genetic Analyses Reveals Cryptic Speciation In The Bombus Fervidus Species Complex (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Jonathan B. Koch, Juanita Rodriguez, James P. Pitts, James P. Strange

Ecology Center Publications

Bumble bees (Bombus Latrielle) are significant pollinators of flowering plants due to their large body size, abundant setae, and generalist foraging strategies. However, shared setal coloration patterns among closely and distantly related bumble bee species makes identification notoriously difficult. The advent of molecular genetic techniques has increased our understanding of bumble bee evolution and taxonomy, and enables effective conservation policy and management. Individuals belonging to the North American Bombus fervidus species-complex (SC) are homogenous in body structure but exhibit significant body color phenotype variation across their geographic distribution. Given the uncertainty of the genealogical boundaries within the SC, some …

Complexity Is Complicated And So Too Is Comparing Complexity Metrics—A Response To Mikula Et Al. (2018), William D. Pearse, Ignacio Morales-Castilla, Logan S. James, Maxwell Farrell, Frédéric Boivin, T. Jonathan Davies

Ecology Center Publications

In a recent publication (Pearse et al. 2018b), we explored the macroevolution and macroecology of passerine song using a large citizen science database of bird songs and powerful machine learning tools. Mikula et al. (2018) examine a small subset (

High Dispersal Ability Is Related To Fast Life-History Strategies, Noelle G. Beckman, James M. Bullock, Roberto Salguero-Gomez

Ecology Center Publications

1. Seed dispersal is an essential, yet often overlooked process in plant ecology and evolution, affecting adaptation capacity, population persistence and invasiveness. A species’ ability to disperse is expected to covary with other life-history traits to form dispersal syndromes. Dispersal might be linked to the rate of life history, fecundity or generation time, depending on the relative selection pressures of bethedging, kin competition or maintaining gene flow. However, the linkage between dispersal and plant life-history strategies remains unknown because it is difficult to observe, quantify and manipulate the influence of dispersal over large spatiotemporal scales.

2. We integrate datasets describing …

Functional Biogeography Of Angiosperms: Life At The Extremes, Amy E. Zanne, William D. Pearse, William K. Cornwell, Daniel J. Mcglinn, Ian J. Wright, Josef C. Uyeda

Ecology Center Publications

Nonlinear relationships between species and their environments are believed common in ecology and evolution, including during angiosperms' rise to dominance. Early angiosperms are thought of as woody evergreens restricted to warm, wet habitats. They have since expanded into numerous cold and dry places. This expansion may have included transitions across important environmental thresholds. To understand linear and nonlinear relationships between angiosperm structure and biogeographic distributions, we integrated large datasets of growth habits, conduit sizes, leaf phenologies, evolutionary histories, and environmental limits. We consider current-day patterns and develop a new evolutionary model to investigate processes that created them. The macroecological pattern …