Ecological characteristics explain neutral genetic variation of three coastal sparrow species.

Eco-phylogeographic approaches to comparative population genetic analyses allow for the inclusion of intrinsic influences as drivers of intraspecific genetic structure. This insight into microevolutionary processes, including changes within a species or lineage, provides better mechanistic understanding of species-specific interactions and enables predictions of evolutionary responses to environmental change. In this study, we used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified from reduced representation sequencing to compare neutral population structure, isolation by distance (IBD), genetic diversity and effective population size (N) across three closely related and co-distributed saltmarsh sparrow species differing along a specialization gradient-Nelson's (Ammospiza nelsoni subvirgata), saltmarsh (A.

Contrasting drivers of diversification rates on islands and continents across three passerine families.

Diversification rates vary greatly among taxa. Understanding how species-specific traits influence speciation rates will help elucidate mechanisms driving biodiversity over broad spatio-temporal scales. Ecological specialization and range size are two hypothesized drivers of speciation rates, yet each mechanism predicts both increases and decreases in speciation.