Category Archives: Highlighted Papers

We tested the hypothesis that aridification of Australia during the Pleistocene promoted the isolation and divergence of three lineages of a migratory fish. We found support for this using an integrative framework of environmental and genomic modelling. Above: Golden perch, Macquaria ambigua. Photo credit: Peter Unmack. The Australian landscape has not always been so arid.Continue reading “Aridification-driven evolution: Three lineages, two data sets, one story”

Phylogeography is celebrating its 35th birthday; Geogenomics its 8th. We asked authors of papers in a recent special section of Journal of Biogeography to reflect on how these two approaches can increase our understanding of the distributions of genetic diversity. Above: Cover for the Geogenomics virtual issue . Biogeography is an integrative discipline, as isContinue reading “Will Geogenomics change the future of Phylogeography?”

Differences in dispersal abilities and habitat specialization determine the postglacial range expansion of three high-elevation plants Above: Steep limestone cliffs in the Pre-Pyrenees, a glacial refugium for the study species. When I first visited the Pyrenees as a child from the Mediterranean lowlands, I got fascinated by the accordion-like folded landscape, the green and denseContinue reading “Ecological traits matter”

Danish islands help to disentangle how plant dispersal characteristics shape species richness patterns. Above: The Danish coastline with the island Hjelm in the background. © Anders Sanchez Barfod. Suppose you hear the names Galapagos, Hawaiian or Canary Islands. In that case, I am sure you have a picture in mind right away. These islands areContinue reading “Danish island biogeography”

The central role of the Amazon River in the evolution of Western Atlantic reef fishes. Above: Amazon River mouth, where the plume of freshwater and sediment reaches the Atlantic Ocean. Photo by Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra/INPE. The magnitude of the Amazon River, by far the largest river of the world, can be illustrated byContinue reading “A freshwater wall in the Atlantic”

More than 1,000 species of eucerine bees exist mainly in savannas, deserts, and other open vegetation habitats on multiple continents, but they are uncommon near the equator and very high latitudes. The historical processes that generated this modern pattern for Eucerinae (and other taxa) are still surrounded by uncertainties. Above: Representatives of each one ofContinue reading “Evolution of solitary bees suggests a biogeographic history connecting open habitats in South and North America”

Previous work has characterized diversity gradients in terrestrial and shallow-water system. Are these previously described diversity gradients also applicable to hard-substrate features in the deep sea? Above: Some example seabed images from the cruises around St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (Credit: British Antarctic Survey/Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science). Investigation into theContinue reading “Diversity of the Deep”

Describing patterns of flowering time in plant communities across six biomes, and showing how they relate to climate means and climate predictability – all using open access data and a reproducible analysis in R. Above: Bossiaea foliosa (Leafy Bossiaea) flowering in the Snowy Mountains in southeast Australia. Alpine flowering is often highly concentrated, as everythingContinue reading “Flowers, biomes, and a mountain of data”

Tropical biomes today occupy a disjunct distribution around the equator covering about 7% of land surface, but harbouring more than 40% of plant species. This mystery is a fascinating topic yet to be fully addressed. We attempt to solve this mystery using our knowledge on the origin and migration of tropical gingers across these globalContinue reading “The Paleotropical Biome Rode the Ark of the Indian Plate from Africa to Asia”

Dietary flexibility promotes range expansion: The case of golden jackals in Eurasia. Above: Golden jackal in carcass cleaning role (with raven Corvus corax). According to the literature, the consumption of wild ungulates and domestic animals are mainly due to scavenging. Photo: Zoltán Horváth. Global changes can lead to the expansion of a species geographical range.Continue reading “Climate and environment shape jackal diet”