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Brett W Benz, Phylogeography and palaeoecological modelling shed light on the diversification history of a montane New Guinea passerine, Peneothello cyanus (Petroicidae), Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 143, Issue 4, December 2024, blae111, https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blae111
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Abstract
Tropical montane ecosystems have undergone recurrent elevational shifts in distribution owing to climatic cycling in the Quaternary, yet the extent to which these events have influenced patterns of diversification and endemism within highland bird communities remains poorly understood. Here, I examine the phylogeographical structure and palaeoecology of a montane New Guinea passerine (Peneothello cyanus) to assess how climate change and topography have shaped its evolutionary history. Mitochondrial sequence data were collected from 169 individuals across 31 localities, and the resulting spatial assessments of genetic variation were integrated with contemporary and Last Glacial Maximum ecological niche reconstructions to test hypotheses of climate-mediated diversification. Three primary lineages of mid-Pleistocene origin were recovered within P. cyanus, revealing a previously unrecognized contact zone in the Star Mountains. Population genetic structure was largely consistent with the distribution of contemporary sky islands and an isolation-by-distance effect, as indicated by hierarchical analyses of molecular variance and Mantel tests, respectively. Although global cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum is likely to have enhanced population connectivity within the central cordillera of New Guinea, persistence of genetic diversity and population structure across multiple climate cycles suggests that dispersal ability and constraints on admixture associated with the linear distribution of these montane environments have played a larger role in shaping regional genetic structure.
