Testing hypotheses of Pleistocene population history using coalescent simulations: phylogeography of the Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-2006

Publication Title

Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Volume

273

Issue

1605

First page number:

3057

Last page number:

3063

Abstract

In this paper, we use mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 sequences to test Pleistocene refugial hypotheses for the pygmy nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea). Pygmy nuthatches are a common resident of long-needle pine forests in western North America and demonstrate a particular affinity with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa). Palaeoecological and genetic data indicate that ponderosa pine was isolated in two Pleistocene refugia corresponding to areas in the southern Sierra Nevada in the west and southern Arizona and New Mexico in the east. We use coalescent simulations to test the hypothesis that pygmy nuthatches tracked the Pleistocene history of their preferred habitat and persisted in two refugia during the periods of glacial maxima. Coalescent simulation of population history does not support the hypothesis of two Pleistocene refugia for the pygmy nuthatch. Instead, our data are consistent with a single refuge model. Nucleotide diversity is greatest in the western populations of southern and coastal California. We suggest that the pygmy nuthatch expanded from a far western glacial refuge into its current distribution since the most recent glacial maximum.

Keywords

Ecological genetics; Phylogeography; Pygmy nuthatch; Sitta pygmaea

Controlled Subject

Biodiversity; Phylogeography; Population Biology

Disciplines

Biodiversity | Molecular Genetics | Ornithology | Population Biology

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited.

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