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.

传统上，解释系统地理学结构（phylogeographic structure）的假说多依托地理特征展开，但往往无法为遗传变异的空间格局提供普适性解释。生物体的内在特性或许在调控系统地理学结构方面，比景观特征发挥更为关键的作用。为此，我们开发了一种全新的比较分析方法，用以探究生态与生活史变量对空间遗传变异的影响，并以巴拿马的蛙类群落为研究对象开展了测试验证。我们基于线粒体DNA（mitochondrial DNA, mtDNA）序列，对31种无尾目（anuran）物种的空间遗传变异进行了量化；通过层级近似贝叶斯计算（hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation）分析，我们排除了这些物种在同一景观背景下同步分化的可能性。以遗传分化为因变量、各类生态变量为自变量开展回归分析后，我们得以检验单个变量的重要性，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“系统地理学结构是生物体与环境相互作用的产物”这一核心观点，并提出了一个可称之为生态系统地理学（ecophylogeography）的概念整合框架。