The past and future influence of geographic information systems on hybrid zone, phylogeographic and speciation research

Abstract

Over the past two decades geographers have developed an increasingly sophisticated technology termed a geographic information system (GIS). A GIS has the ability to store, map and analyse spatial data. The powerful analytical capabilities of a GIS could serve to enhance our understanding of the spatial component of the evolutionary process. In particular, phylogeographers, hybrid zone and speciation researchers could benefit enormously from incorporating this sophisticated technology from the discipline of geography, as they have done so readily from other disciplines (e.g. genetics). Indeed, an increasing number of researchers in these fields are beginning to include GIS analyses into their research programmes. Some of this integration has taken the form of analysing the spatial relationship between populations and hybrid zones. Several other researchers have also begun to incorporate GIS into their work through the use of GIS-based niche models. These models estimate a multidimensional niche for a species using known geo-referenced populations and digital climate maps. Here, I review the recent integration of GIS and GIS-based predictive niche models into the above evolutionary sub-disciplines. I also describe evolutionary analyses that could be further enhanced through the implementation of GIS.