TY - JOUR

T1 - Evolutionary history and past climate change shape the distribution of genetic diversity in terrestrial mammals

AU - Theodoridis, Spyros

AU - Fordham, Damien A.

AU - Brown, Stuart C.

AU - Li, Sen

AU - Rahbek, Carsten

AU - Nogues-Bravo, David

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Knowledge of global patterns of biodiversity, ranging from intraspecific genetic diversity (GD) to taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity, is essential for identifying and conserving the processes that shape the distribution of life. Yet, global patterns of GD and its drivers remain elusive. Here we assess existing biodiversity theories to explain and predict the global distribution of GD in terrestrial mammal assemblages. We find a strong positive covariation between GD and interspecific diversity, with evolutionary time, reflected in phylogenetic diversity, being the best predictor of GD. Moreover, we reveal the negative effect of past rapid climate change and the positive effect of inter-annual precipitation variability in shaping GD. Our models, explaining almost half of the variation in GD globally, uncover the importance of deep evolutionary history and past climate stability in accumulating and maintaining intraspecific diversity, and constitute a crucial step towards reducing the Wallacean shortfall for an important dimension of biodiversity. The drivers of genetic diversity (GD) are poorly understood at the global scale. Here the authors show, for terrestrial mammals, that within-species GD covaries with phylogenetic diversity and is higher in locations with more stable past climates. They also interpolate GD for data-poor locations such as the tropics.

AB - Knowledge of global patterns of biodiversity, ranging from intraspecific genetic diversity (GD) to taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity, is essential for identifying and conserving the processes that shape the distribution of life. Yet, global patterns of GD and its drivers remain elusive. Here we assess existing biodiversity theories to explain and predict the global distribution of GD in terrestrial mammal assemblages. We find a strong positive covariation between GD and interspecific diversity, with evolutionary time, reflected in phylogenetic diversity, being the best predictor of GD. Moreover, we reveal the negative effect of past rapid climate change and the positive effect of inter-annual precipitation variability in shaping GD. Our models, explaining almost half of the variation in GD globally, uncover the importance of deep evolutionary history and past climate stability in accumulating and maintaining intraspecific diversity, and constitute a crucial step towards reducing the Wallacean shortfall for an important dimension of biodiversity. The drivers of genetic diversity (GD) are poorly understood at the global scale. Here the authors show, for terrestrial mammals, that within-species GD covaries with phylogenetic diversity and is higher in locations with more stable past climates. They also interpolate GD for data-poor locations such as the tropics.

KW - MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

KW - SPECIES RICHNESS

KW - PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY

KW - MULTIMODEL INFERENCE

KW - BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

KW - MODEL SELECTION

KW - BIODIVERSITY

KW - TEMPO

KW - PATTERNS

KW - LAND

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-020-16449-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-020-16449-5

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 32444801

VL - 11

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 2557

ER -