TY - JOUR

T1 - Phylogenomics and biogeography of arid-adapted Chlamydogobius goby fishes

AU - Mossop, Krystina D.

AU - Lemmon, Alan R.

AU - Moriarty Lemmon, Emily

AU - Eytan, Ron

AU - Adams, Mark

AU - Unmack, Peter J.

AU - Smith Date, Katie

AU - Morales, Hernán E.

AU - Hammer, Michael P.

AU - Wong, Bob B. M.

AU - Chapple, David G.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 Elsevier Inc.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The progressive aridification of the Australian continent from ∼ 20 million years ago posed severe challenges for the persistence of its resident biota. A key question involves the role of refugial habitats – specifically, their ability to mediate the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and their potential to shape opportunities for allopatric speciation. With freshwater species, for example, the patchiness, or absence, of water will constrain distributions. However, aridity may not necessarily isolate populations if disjunct refugia experience frequent hydrological connections. To investigate this potential dichotomy, we explored the evolutionary history of the Chlamydogobius gobies (Gobiiformes: Gobiidae), an arid-adapted genus of six small, benthic fish species that exploit all types of waterbodies (i.e. desert springs, waterholes and bore-fed wetlands, coastal estuarine creeks and mangroves) across parts of central and northern Australia. We used Anchored Phylogenomics to generate a highly resolved phylogeny of the group from sequence data for 260 nuclear loci. Buttressed by companion allozyme and mtDNA datasets, our molecular findings infer the diversification of Chlamydogobius in arid Australia, and provide a phylogenetic structure that cannot be simply explained by invoking allopatric speciation events reflecting current geographic proximity. Our findings are generally consistent with the existing morphological delimitation of species, with one exception: at the shallowest nodes of phylogenetic reconstruction, the molecular data do not fully support the current dichotomous delineation of C. japalpa from C. eremius in Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre-associated waterbodies. Together these findings illustrate the ability of structural (hydrological) connections to generate patterns of connectivity and isolation for an ecologically moderate disperser in response to ongoing habitat aridification. Finally, we explore the implications of these results for the immediate management of threatened (C. gloveri) and critically endangered (C. micropterus, C. squamigenus) congeners.

AB - The progressive aridification of the Australian continent from ∼ 20 million years ago posed severe challenges for the persistence of its resident biota. A key question involves the role of refugial habitats – specifically, their ability to mediate the effects of habitat loss and fragmentation, and their potential to shape opportunities for allopatric speciation. With freshwater species, for example, the patchiness, or absence, of water will constrain distributions. However, aridity may not necessarily isolate populations if disjunct refugia experience frequent hydrological connections. To investigate this potential dichotomy, we explored the evolutionary history of the Chlamydogobius gobies (Gobiiformes: Gobiidae), an arid-adapted genus of six small, benthic fish species that exploit all types of waterbodies (i.e. desert springs, waterholes and bore-fed wetlands, coastal estuarine creeks and mangroves) across parts of central and northern Australia. We used Anchored Phylogenomics to generate a highly resolved phylogeny of the group from sequence data for 260 nuclear loci. Buttressed by companion allozyme and mtDNA datasets, our molecular findings infer the diversification of Chlamydogobius in arid Australia, and provide a phylogenetic structure that cannot be simply explained by invoking allopatric speciation events reflecting current geographic proximity. Our findings are generally consistent with the existing morphological delimitation of species, with one exception: at the shallowest nodes of phylogenetic reconstruction, the molecular data do not fully support the current dichotomous delineation of C. japalpa from C. eremius in Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre-associated waterbodies. Together these findings illustrate the ability of structural (hydrological) connections to generate patterns of connectivity and isolation for an ecologically moderate disperser in response to ongoing habitat aridification. Finally, we explore the implications of these results for the immediate management of threatened (C. gloveri) and critically endangered (C. micropterus, C. squamigenus) congeners.

KW - Allopatric speciation

KW - Climate shift

KW - Connectivity

KW - Dispersal

KW - Fragmentation

KW - Phylogenetics

KW - Refuge

U2 - 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107757

DO - 10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107757

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36925090

AN - SCOPUS:85150046402

VL - 182

JO - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

JF - Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

SN - 1055-7903

M1 - 107757

ER -