Why are tropical mountain passes ‘low’ for some species? genetic and stable-isotope tests for differentiation, migration, and expansion in elevational generalist songbirds

1.Most tropical bird species have narrow elevational ranges, likely reflecting climatic specialization. This is consistent with Janzen's Rule, the tendency for mountain passes to be effectively ‘higher’ in the tropics. Hence, those few tropical species that occur across broad elevational gradients (elevational generalists) represent a contradiction to Janzen's Rule.

2.Here we aim to address the following questions. Are elevational generalists being sundered by diversifying selection along the gradient? Does elevational movement cause these species to resist diversification or specialization? Have they recently expanded, suggesting that elevational generalism is short-lived in geological time?

3.To answer these questions, we tested for differentiation, movement, and expansion in four elevational generalist songbird species on the Andean west slope. We used morphology and mtDNA to test for genetic differentiation between high- and low-elevation populations. To test for elevational m...