1 Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
2 Department of Zoology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
3 Jardin Botanique de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
4 Environment, University of York, York, UK.
5 Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
6 Centro de Investigación en Recursos Naturales y Sustentabilidad (CIRENYS), Universidad Bernardo O'Higgins, Santiago, Chile.
7 Community and Quantitative Ecology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
8 Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Departamento de Zoología, Universidad de Concepción, Barrio Universitario de Concepción, Chile.
9 Department of Ecology and Genetics, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
10 WSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, Lausanne, Switzerland.
11 Laboratory of Ecological Systems (ECOS), Ecole Polytechnique Féderale de Lausanne (EPFL), School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), Lausanne, Switzerland.
12 Department of Life Science and Biotechnologies, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.
13 Laboratory of Biogeocenology, Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
14 Department of Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Geology, Babe?-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
15 School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
16 Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Monitoring, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences and Department of Biogeography and Paleoecology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland.
17 Institute of Parasitology, Biology Center, Czech Academy of Sciences, Ceské Budejovice, Czech Republic.
18 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.

Dispersal limitations and historical factors determine the biogeography of specialized terrestrial protists.

Mol Ecol. 2019 May 04;:

Authors: Singer D, Mitchell EAD, Payne RJ, Blandenier Q, Duckert C, Fernández LD, Fournier B, Hernández CE, Granath G, Rydin H, Bragazza L, Koronatova NG, Goia I, Harris LI, Kajukalo K, Kosakyan A, Lamentowicz M, Kosykh NP, Vellak K, Lara E

Abstract

Recent studies show that soil eukaryotic diversity is immense and dominated by microorganisms. However, it is unclear to what extent the processes that shape the distribution of diversity in plants and animals also apply to microorganisms. Major diversification events in multicellular organisms have often been attributed to long-term climatic and geological processes, but the impact of such processes on protist diversity has received much less attention as their distribution has often been believed to be largely cosmopolitan. Here, we quantified phylogeographic patterns in Hyalosphenia papilio, a large testate amoeba restricted to Holarctic Sphagnum-dominated peatlands, to test if the current distribution of its genetic diversity can be explained by historical factors or by the current distribution of suitable habitat. Phylogenetic diversity was higher in Western North America, corresponding to the inferred geographical origin of the H. papilio complex, and was lower in Eurasia despite extensive suitable habitat. These results suggest that patterns of phylogenetic diversity and distribution can be explained by the history of Holarctic Sphagnum peatland range expansions and contractions in response to Quaternary glaciations that promoted cladogenetic range evolution, rather than the contemporary distribution of suitable habitats. Species distributions were positively correlated with climatic niche breadth, suggesting that climatic tolerance is key to dispersal ability in H. papilio. This implies that, at least for large and specialized terrestrial microorganisms, propagule dispersal is slow enough that historical processes may contribute to their diversification and phylogeographic patterns and may partly explain their very high overall diversity. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

PMID: 31055860 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]