Meta-analysis: Congruence of genomic and phenotypic differentiation across diverse natural study systems.

Linking genotype to phenotype is a primary goal for understanding the genomic underpinnings of evolution. However, little work has explored whether patterns of linked genomic and phenotypic differentiation are congruent across natural study systems and traits. Here, we investigate such patterns with a meta-analysis of studies examining population-level differentiation at subsets of loci and traits putatively responding to divergent selection.

An oversimplification of physiological principles leads to flawed macroecological analyses.

Macrophysiological analyses are useful to predict current and future range limits and improve our understanding of endotherm macroecology, but such analyses too often rely on oversimplifications of endothermic thermoregulatory and energetic physiology, which lessens their applicability. We detail some of the major issues with macrophysiological analyses based on the classic Scholander-Irving model of endotherm energetics in the hope that it will encourage other research teams to more appropriately integrate physiology into macroecological analyses.

Landscape genetics reveals unique and shared effects of urbanization for two sympatric pool-breeding amphibians.

Metapopulation-structured species can be negatively affected when landscape fragmentation impairs connectivity. We investigated the effects of urbanization on genetic diversity and gene flow for two sympatric amphibian species, spotted salamanders () and wood frogs (), across a large (>35,000 km) landscape in Maine, USA, containing numerous natural and anthropogenic gradients. Isolation-by-distance (IBD) patterns differed between the species.

Genomic signatures of population bottleneck and recovery in Northwest Atlantic pinnipeds.

Population increases over the past several decades provide natural settings in which to study the evolutionary processes that occur during bottleneck, growth, and spatial expansion. We used parallel natural experiments of historical decline and subsequent recovery in two sympatric pinniped species in the Northwest Atlantic, the gray seal () and harbor seal (), to study the impact of recent demographic change in genomic diversity. Using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, we assessed genomic diversity at over 8,700 polymorphic gray seal loci and 3,700 polymorphic harbor seal loci in samples from multiple cohorts collected throughout recovery over the past half-century.