Ecological niche divergence or ecological niche partitioning in a widespread Neotropical bird lineage.

ABSTRACT: Ecological niche divergence is generally considered to be a facet of evolution that may accompany geographic isolation and diversification in allopatry, contributing to species' evolutionary distinctiveness through time. The null expectation for any two diverging species in geographic isolation is that of niche conservatism, wherein populations do not rapidly shift to or adapt to novel environments. Here, I test ecological niche divergence for a widespread, pan-American lineage, the avian genus of martins (Progne). Despite containing species with distributions that go from continent-spanning to locally endemic, I found limited evidence for niche divergence across the breeding distributions of Progne, and much stronger support for niche conservatism with patterns of niche part

SUBMITTER: Cooper JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10849527 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature