Data from: Testing the role of ecology and life history in structuring genetic variation across a landscape: a trait-based phylogeographic approach

Hypotheses to explain phylogeographic structure traditionally invoke geographic features, but often fail to provide a general explanation for spatial patterns of genetic variation. Organism's intrinsic characteristics might play more important roles than landscape features in determining phylogeographic structure. We developed a novel comparative approach to explore the role of ecological and life-history variables in determining spatial genetic variation and tested it on frog communities in Panama. We quantified spatial genetic variation within 31 anuran species based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, for which hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation analyses rejected simultaneous divergence over a common landscape. Regressing ecological variables on genetic divergence allowed us to test the importance of individual variables revealing that body size, current landscape resistance, geographic range, biogeographic origin, and reproductive mode were significant predictors of spatial genetic variation. Our results support the idea that phylogeographic structure represents the outcome of an interaction between organisms and environment, and suggest a conceptual integration we refer to as ecophylogeography.

传统用于解释系统地理结构（phylogeographic structure）的假说多以地理特征为核心依据，但往往无法为遗传变异的空间格局提供普适性解释。相较于景观特征，生物的内在特性或许在决定系统地理结构方面发挥着更为关键的作用。我们开发了一种新颖的比较研究方法，用以探究生态与生活史变量对空间遗传变异的塑造作用，并以巴拿马的蛙类群落为研究对象开展了实证检验。我们基于线粒体DNA（mitochondrial DNA）序列，对31种无尾目（Anura）动物的种内空间遗传变异进行了量化分析；分层近似贝叶斯计算（hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation）分析结果拒绝了“基于共同景观的同步分化”这一假说。通过以遗传分化为因变量、生态变量为自变量进行回归分析，我们得以检验各单个变量的重要性，结果显示体型大小、当前景观阻力、地理分布范围、生物地理起源以及繁殖模式均为空间遗传变异的显著预测因子。本研究结果支持“系统地理结构是生物与环境相互作用的产物”这一观点，并提出了我们称之为生态系统地理学（ecophylogeography）的概念整合研究框架。