Data from: Geographic variation in the Pine Barrens Treefrog (Hyla andersonii): concordance of genetic, morphometric, and acoustic signal data

Delimiting species is important to every subfield in biology. Templeton's cohesion species concept uses genetic and ecological exchangeability to identify sets of populations that ought to be considered as the same species, and the lack of exchangeability helps determine which populations can be grouped as evolutionarily significant units in conservation science. However, previous work assessing genetic and ecological interchangeability among populations has been limited in scope. Here, we provide a method for assessing exchangeability that incorporates multiple, independent lines of multivariate evidence in genetic, behavioral, and morphological data. We use this approach to assess exchangeability across three disjunct groups of populations of the Pine Barrens Treefrog (Hyla andersonii) from the eastern United States. This species is considered threatened by each state in which it occurs and conservation management of this taxon requires a clearer understanding of how populations in these three regions may differ from one another. We find a strikingly concordant pattern in which the first axis of variation for each of the three types of data distinguishes populations along a latitudinal gradient and the second axis distinguishes the set of populations occurring in the Carolinas from those occurring in the New Jersey and Florida/Alabama regions. We know of no comparable dataset that displays such concordance among different types of data across so large a geographic range. The overlap in trait values (i.e. exchangeability) between neighboring regions, however, is substantial in all three types of data, which supports continued consideration of this taxon as a single species.物种界定对于生物学的所有分支领域均具有核心意义。坦普尔顿凝聚种概念（Templeton's cohesion species concept）借助遗传与生态可交换性（genetic and ecological exchangeability）来界定应被划归为同一物种的种群集合，而可交换性的缺失则可用于判定哪些种群可被归为保护科学中的进化显著单元。然而，此前针对种群间遗传与生态可交换性开展的相关研究，其覆盖范围较为有限。本研究提出一种可交换性评估方法，该方法整合了来自遗传、行为及形态学数据的多组独立多变量证据。我们运用该方法，对美国东部松沼雨蛙（Hyla andersonii）的三个间断分布种群群开展可交换性评估。该物种在其所有分布州均被列为受威胁物种，而对该类群的保护管理，亟需明确这三个区域的种群之间存在何种分化。本研究发现了一种高度一致的模式：三类数据的第一变异轴均沿纬度梯度对种群进行区分，而第二变异轴则将分布于卡罗来纳州的种群，与分布于新泽西州以及佛罗里达/阿拉巴马州的种群区分开来。据我们所知，目前尚无同类数据集能够在如此广阔的地理范围内，展现不同数据类型间如此高的一致性。不过，三类数据中相邻区域的性状值（即可交换性）均存在显著重叠，这一结果支持将该类群继续视为单一物种的观点。