Effects of Climate History and Environmental Grain on Species’ Distributions in Africa and South America

Abstract

AbstractClimate changes during the Pleistocene produced shifts, reductions, and expansions of biomes that, in turn, have been hypothesized to have driven speciation and extinction and shaped patterns of biodiversity. Here, we explore effects of Late Pleistocene climatic changes on environmentally and geographically cohesive areas mimicking species’ distributions. We analyzed persistence of these ‘species’ over the transition from the warm Last Interglacial period to the cool Last Glacial Maximum period to warm present‐day conditions, for four levels of environmental restriction (5, 10, 15 and 20% of overall variation; akin to niche breadths). African environments were overall much less conserved over these periods than those of South America, matching diversity contrasts between the two continents. Results thus indicate that biodiversity patterns relate closely to historical patterns of environmental grain and their stability through time; this view is a step toward an integral understanding of the role of environmental and geographic factors in the process of biological diversification.