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Dryad
Published June 27, 2023 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Blood variation implicates respiratory limits on elevational ranges of Andean birds

Creators

  • 1. University of New Mexico
  • 2. Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad
  • 3. University of California, Berkeley
  • 4. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
  • 5. National Agrarian University
  • 6. Southwest Biological Science Center*
  • 7. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
  • 8. Harvard University
  • 9. National University of Trujillo
  • 10. Kenyon College
  • 11. University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Description

The extent to which species ranges reflect intrinsic physiological tolerances is a major, unsolved question in evolutionary ecology. To date, consensus has been hindered by the limited tractability of experimental approaches across most of the tree of life. Here, we apply a macrophysiological approach to understand how hematological traits related to oxygen transport shape elevational ranges in a tropical biodiversity hotspot. Along Andean elevational gradients, we measured traits that affect blood oxygen-carrying capacity—total and cellular hemoglobin concentration and hematocrit—for 2,355 individuals of 136 bird species. We used these data to evaluate the influence of hematological traits on elevational ranges. First, we asked whether the sensitivity of hematological traits to elevation is predictive of elevational range breadth. Second, we asked whether variance in hematological traits changed as a function of distance to the nearest elevational range limit. We found that the correlation between hematological sensitivity and elevational range breadth was slightly positive, consistent with a facilitative role for sensitivity in elevational range expansion. We further found reduced local variation in hematological traits near elevational range limits and at high elevations, patterns consistent with intensified natural selection, reduced effective population size, or compensatory changes in other cardiorespiratory traits. Our findings suggest that constraints on hematological sensitivity and local genetic adaptation to oxygen availability promote the evolution of the narrow elevational ranges that underpin tropical montane biodiversity.

Notes

Raw data are stored as comma-separated values (.csv) files. All data processing, analyses, and figures can be produced by sequentially running three R Markdown (.Rmd) notebooks found in the associated Zenodo repository (this procedure is documented in the README). 

Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DBI 1907353

Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DEB 1146491

Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DEB 0543556

Files

blood_data.csv

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Additional details

Related works

Is derived from
10.5281/zenodo.6788615 (DOI)
Is source of
10.5281/zenodo.6788617 (DOI)