Search

Organismal traits interact with environmental variation to mediate how species respond to shared landscapes. Thus, differences in traits related to dispersal ability or physiological tolerance may result in phylogeographic discordance among co-distributed taxa, even when they are responding to common barriers. We quantified climatic suitability and stability, and phylogeographic divergence within three reed frog species complexes across the Guineo-Congolian forests and Gulf of Guinea archipelago of Central Africa to investigate how they responded to a shared climatic and geological history. Our species-specific estimates of climatic suitability through time are consistent with temporal and spatial heterogeneity in diversification among the species complexes, indicating that differences in ecological breadth may partly explain these idiosyncratic patterns. Likewise, we demonstrated that fluctuating sea levels periodically exposed a land bridge connecting Bioko Island with the mainland Guineo-Congolian forest and that habitats across the exposed land bridge likely enabled dispersal in some species, but not in others. We did not find evidence that rivers are biogeographic barriers across any of the species complexes. Despite marked differences in the geographic extent of stable climates and temporal estimates of divergence among the species complexes, we recovered a shared pattern of intermittent climatic suitability with recent population connectivity and demographic expansion across the Congo Basin. This pattern supports the hypothesis that genetic exchange across the Congo Basin during humid periods, followed by vicariance during arid periods, has shaped regional diversity. Finally, we identified many distinct lineages among our focal taxa, some of which may reflect incipient or unrecognized species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim To infer the colonization history of reed frog species endemic to the oceanic islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, Hyperolius molleri and H. thomensis, we quantified phylogeographical structure in the closely related H. cinnamomeoventris species complex, which is broadly distributed across continental Central Africa. Location The Lower Guineo-Congolian Forest and the Gulf of Guinea islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, Central Africa. Methods We combined gene and species tree analyses to investigate diversity and divergence among H. cinnamomeoventris populations, to identify the most likely dispersal route to the islands, and to infer the order in which the islands were colonized. One of the endemics ( H. molleri) is distributed on both islands and we quantified genetic divergence between populations. Results We recovered three clades in H. cinnamomeoventris corresponding to West-Central, North/East-Central and South-Central Africa. The island endemics form a monophyletic group most closely related to the West-Central African H. cinnamomeoventris clade. Populations of H. molleri on São Tomé and Príncipe are reciprocally monophyletic at mitochondrial loci but nuclear gene trees do not support this divergence. Main conclusions Genetic structure in the H. cinnamomeoventris species complex coincides with biogeographical barriers identified in previous studies of Central African rain forest taxa. Individual gene tree and species tree analyses support a single dispersal event from the Ogooué or Congo river basins (West-Central Africa) to the island of São Tomé, with subsequent divergence within São Tomé and dispersal to Príncipe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim We propose a phylogeny of selected Hyperolius species (Anura: Hyperoliidae), based on mtDNA sequence data and parsimony analysis. This phylogeny was used to interpret the historical biogeography of the genus in Africa. Location Samples were collected throughout the distribution of Hyperolius in Africa. Methods We compiled distributional maps of all species, summarized historical changes in vegetation and climate in Africa since the late Cretaceous, and used these in combination to identify historical factors that may have contributed to speciation in these frogs. A phylogeny for Hyperolius was derived from mtDNA sequence data and interpreted in terms of climatic and vegetation changes in Africa. Main conclusions Lowland rainforest is proposed to have been the ancestral habitat of Hyperolius . The expansion of savannah and reduction of lowland rainforest were identified as important factors in the differentiation of the more basal species. Finally, the development of the Rift Valley system played an important role in the speciation of derived species with relatively limited distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]