Data from: Environmental selection is a main driver of divergence in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in Romania and Bulgaria
| Main Authors: | Geue, Julia C., Vágási, Csongor I., Schweizer, Mona, Pap, Péter L., Thomassen, Henri A. |
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| Format: | info dataset Journal |
| Terbitan: |
, 2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/4974701 |
Daftar Isi:
- Both neutral and adaptive evolutionary processes can cause population divergence, but their relative contributions remain unclear. We investigated the roles of these processes in population divergence in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) from Romania and Bulgaria, regions characterized by high landscape heterogeneity compared to Western Europe. We asked whether morphological divergence, complemented with genetic data in this human commensal species, was best explained by environmental variation, geographic distance, or landscape resistance—the effort it takes for an individual to disperse from one location to the other—caused by either natural or anthropogenic barriers. Using generalized dissimilarity modeling, a matrix regression technique that fits biotic beta diversity to both environmental predictors and geographic distance, we found that a small set of climate and vegetation variables explained up to ~30% of the observed divergence, whereas geographic and resistance distances played much lesser roles. Our results are consistent with signals of selection on morphological traits and of isolation by adaptation in genetic markers, suggesting that selection by natural environmental conditions shapes population divergence in house sparrows. Our study thus contributes to a growing body of evidence that adaptive evolution may be a major driver of diversification.
- Environmental VariablesValues of the environmental variables at the sampling locations. Bio1-19 and elevation were obtained from WorldClim. Slope and aspect were calculated from elevation. Tree2001 (percent tree cover) and LAI variables were obtained from the Global Landcover facility. QSCAT variables were computed from raw data obtained from the NASA SCP data set. Road density was computed from the Digital Chart of the World. Human population density was obtained from the Gridded Population of the World data set. For detailed methods, please see the online supporting information.Morphological measurementsMorphological measurements for adult males and females collected in the field.Microsatellite genotypesMicrosatellite genotypes (fragment lengths). Two columns per locus; one for each allele. 0 = no data. Samples were collected in the field between 2007-2015. Allele calling performed with GeneMarker V2.4.1 (Softgenetics, State College, PA, USA).Microsatssub.xlsx