ArticleBMC ecology2018
Inferring ecological explanations for biogeographic boundaries of parapatric Asian mountain frogs.
Article in BMC ecology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diversification in the steppe rat snakePeerJ · 2026Article
- Biogeographic barriers and environmental gradients reveal distribution limits in Hynobius salamanders.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Realized niche shift of an invasive widow spider: drivers and impacts of human activities.Frontiers in zoology · 2022Article
- Morphological Variation and Its Environmental Correlates in the Taihangshan Swelled-Vented Frog across the Qinling Mountains.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
- Multidimensional amphibian diversity and community structure along a 2 600 m elevational gradient on the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.Zoological research · 2022Article
- Combining the responses of habitat suitability and connectivity to climate change for an East Asian endemic frog.Frontiers in zoology · 2021Article
- Unveiling the roles of interspecific competition and local adaptation in phenotypic differentiation of parapatric frogs.Current zoology · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIdentifying and understanding the mechanisms that shape barriers to dispersal and resulting biogeographic boundaries has been a longstanding, yet challenging, goal in ecology, evolution and biogeography. Characterized by stable, adjacent ranges, without any intervening physical barriers, and limited, if any, range overlap in a narrow contact zone, parapatric species are an interesting system for studying biogeographic boundaries. The geographic ranges of two parapatric frog species, Feirana quadranus and F. taihangnica, meet in a contact zone within the Qinling Mountains, an important watershed for East Asia. To identify possible ecological determinants of the parapatric range boundaries for two closely related frog species, we quantified the extent of their niche differentiation in both geographical and environmental space combining ecological niche models with an ordination technique. We tested two alternative null hypotheses (sharp environmental gradients versus a ribbon of unsuitable habitat dividing two highly suitable regions) for biogeographic boundaries, against the null expectation that environmental variation across a given boundary is no greater than expected by chance.
resultsWe found that the niches of these two parapatric species are more similar than expected by chance, but not equivalent. No sharp environmental gradient was found, while a ribbon of unsuitable habitat did act as a barrier for F. quadranus, but not for F. taihangnica.
conclusionsIntegrating our findings with historical biogeographic information, our results suggest that at a contact zone, environmental tolerance restricted F. quadranus from dispersing further north, while interspecific competition most likely prevented the southward expansion of F. taihangnica. This study highlights the importance of both climate and competition in exploring ecological explanations for parapatric range boundaries between ecologically similar frog species, in particular under the effects of changing climate.
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