Influence of phylogenetic structure and climate gradients on geographical variation in the morphology of Mexican flycatcher forests assemblages (Aves: Tyrannidae)

作者：Gala Cortés-Ramírez, César A. Ríos-Muñóz, Adolfo G. Navarro‐Sigüenza · 发表于：PeerJ · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.7717/peerj.6754 · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Species Distribution and Climate Change、Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Evolution and Paleontology Studies

Morphological variation is strongly related to variation in the ecological characteristics and evolutionary history of each taxon. To explore how geographical variation in morphology is related to different climatic gradients and phylogenetic structure, we analyzed the variation of morphological traits (body size, bill, and wing) of 64 species of tyrant flycatchers (Tyrannidae) distributed in Mexico. We measured these morphological traits in specimens from biological collections and related them to the climatic and topographic data of each collection locality. We performed the analyses separately at two levels: (1) the regional level and (2) the assemblage level, which was split into (assemblage I) lowland forests and (assemblage II) highland forests and other vegetation types. We also calculated the phylogenetic structure of flycatchers of each locality in order to explore the influence of climatic variables and the phylogenetic structure on the morphological variation of tyrant flycatchers, by means of linear mixed-effects models. We mapped the spatial variation of the relationship between morphological traits and environmental gradients, taking into account the phylogenetic structure. Important climatic variables explaining the morphological variation were those of temperature ranges (seasonality) and the results suggest that the phylogenetic clustering increases towards the highlands of Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre del Sur, and the lowlands of Balsas Depression....