Identification of Cenocrons - Evolutionary Biogeography - page 271

Intraspecific phylogeography is conceptually positioned between mac-
roevolution and microevolution (Lomolino et al. 2006; Riddle and Hafner
2004). With its focus on historical processes, it contextualizes and balances
the ecogeographic perspective that tend to emphasize natural selection's
role in microevolution (Avise 2000). In addition, it provides the promising
basis for a bridge between ecological and evolutionary biogeography.
One promising area of interaction between phylogeography and eco-
logical biogeography concerns the study of range dynamics. The range
of a species changes through time, with a set of trajectories that it can
take between speciation and ultimate extinction (Gaston 2003). Intraspecific
phylogeography may be useful for helping determine which of the broad
classes of dynamics that have been identified (Gaston 2003) correspond to
the species analyzed ( fig. 7.3 ):
• Stasis: The geographic range remains largely unchanged ( fig. 7.3a ) .
• Stasis postexpansion: The geographic range increases rapidly, and
the resultant area is maintained for a while ( fig. 7.3b ) .
• Age and area: The geographic range increases in size progressively
( fig. 7.3c ) .
• Cyclic: There is a cycle in which the species pass through a sequence
of range expansion, evolutionary differentiation between populations,
and extinction ( fig. 7.3d ) .
• Idiosyncratic: The species range exhibits an entirely idiosyncratic tra-
jectory, with no clear change ( fig. 7.3e ).