Effect Of Geographic Distance Research Articles

Does Distance Affect the Role of Nonlocal Subsidiaries on Cluster Firms’ Innovation? An Empirical Investigation on Chinese Biotechnology Cluster Firms

As translocation strategy has been pursued by cluster firms, two types of nonlocal subsidiaries, nonlocal manufacturing subsidiaries (NMS) and nonlocal R&D subsidiaries (NRS) contribute to their holding firms’ innovation in different ways. Prior studies have not paid much attention to the role of NMS and NRS, and how their effects are contingent on distance. To address this gap, this paper assesses the contribution of NMS and NRS on cluster firms’ innovation performance respectively and ascertains the moderating effect of geographical distance and social distance. The empirical investigation is conducted using a sample of 79 Chinese cluster firms. Our results indicate that both NMS and NRS have positively influenced cluster firms’ innovative performance. Moreover, geographical distance negatively moderates both the role of NMS and NRS. On the other hand, social distance only increases the influence of NRS on their holding firms’ innovation. Thus, spatial distance may hamper knowledge acquisition through NMS and NRS while loosely connected NRS would contribute more to their parent companies in local clusters. Our research contributes to the literature on cluster firms’ relocation strategy by clarifying the distinct role of NMS and NRS and recognizing the contingent effect caused by geographical and social distance.

Outbound Tourism and Determinants: Evidence from China

This study examines the determinants of outbound tourism from China to 73 destinations, while focusing on the impact of direct flights, cultural heritage, and the conditional effect of geographical distance. Panel data covering the period from 2000 to 2014 are used to estimate the working model. The results reveal that the impact of distance conditional on the development status of destinations is positive. Direct flight is positive and significant, demonstrating that an increase in the number of cities accessible with direct flights will increase outbound tourism. Cultural heritage is positive but not significant because most destinations recorded zero heritage centers. These results point to need for African countries to strive towards becoming developed, and for destinations to ensure the availability of direct flights from their respective countries to China.

Floral organs act as environmental filters and interact with pollinators to structure the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) floral microbiome.

Assembly of microbial communities is the result of neutral and selective processes. However, the relative importance of these processes is still debated. Microbial communities of flowers, in particular, have gained recent attention because of their potential impact to plant fitness and plant-pollinator interactions. However, the role of selection and dispersal in the assembly of these communities remains poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the role of pollinator-mediated dispersal on the contribution of neutral and selective processes in the assembly of floral microbiomes of the yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus). We sampled floral organs from flowers in the presence and absence of pollinators within five different serpentine seeps in CA and obtained 16S amplicon data on the epiphytic bacterial communities. Consistent with strong microenvironment selection within flowers we observed significant differences in community composition across floral organs and only a small effect of geographic distance. Pollinator exposure affected the contribution of environmental selection and depended on the rate and intimacy of interactions with flower visitors. This study provides evidence of the importance of dispersal and within-flower heterogeneity in shaping epiphytic bacterial communities of flowers, and highlights the complex interplay between pollinator behaviour, environmental selection and additional abiotic factors in shaping the epiphytic bacterial communities of flowers.

Navigating geographic and cultural distances in international expansion: The paradoxical roles of firm size, age, and ownership

AbstractResearch SummaryWhile geographic and cultural distances deter firms' international expansion, they do so via different mechanisms, such that firms with advantages in overcoming one‐dimension may face disadvantages in overcoming the other. Larger, older, and state‐owned firms have better access to resources in their home countries than smaller, younger, and non‐state‐owned firms, and thus are less concerned about the high operating costs associated with larger geographic distances. However, they are less adaptable to culturally distant countries and thus are more concerned about larger cultural distances. We propose that firm size, age, and state ownership weaken the deterrent effect of geographic distance while amplifying the deterrent effect of cultural distance. Results using data on Chinese firms' location choices of foreign direct investments in 2001–2013 support our predictions.Managerial SummaryA key decision that managers need to make in expanding overseas is the foreign location choice. Although managers generally refrain from expanding to geographically and culturally distant countries, the importance of geographic and cultural distances in their consideration varies across firms, which tend to differ in resource endowment and adaptability. Because larger, older, and state‐owned firms are better positioned to absorb additional operating costs but are less adaptable to foreign countries' local environments than smaller, younger, and non‐state‐owned firms, the deterrent effect of geographic distance (cultural distance) is weaker (stronger) for the former than for the latter. Our findings show that foreign countries that seem to be good fits when considering geographic distance may be misfits when considering cultural distance, and vice versa.

Regional epigenetic variation in asexual snail populations among urban and rural lakes.

Epigenetic variation has the potential to influence environmentally dependent development and contribute to phenotypic responses to local environments. Environmental epigenetic studies of sexual organisms confirm the capacity to respond through epigenetic variation. An epigenetic response could be even more important in a population when genetic variation is lacking. A previous study of an asexual snail, Potamopyrgus antipodarum, demonstrated that different populations derived from a single clonal lineage differed in both shell phenotype and methylation signature when comparing lake versus river populations. Here, we examine methylation variation among lakes that differ in environmental disturbance and pollution histories. Snails were collected from a more pristine rural Lake 1 (Lake Lytle), and two urban lakes, Lake 2 (Capitol Lake) and Lake 3 (Lake Washington) on the Northwest Pacific coast. DNA methylation was assessed for each sample population using methylated DNA immunoprecipitation, MeDIP, followed by next-generation sequencing. The differential DNA methylation regions (DMRs) identified among the different lake comparisons suggested a higher number of DMRs and variation between rural Lake 1 and one urban Lake 2, and between the two urban Lakes 2 and 3, but limited variation between the rural Lake 1 and urban Lake 3. DMR genomic characteristics and gene associations were investigated. The presence of site-specific differences between each of these lake populations suggest an epigenetic response to varied environmental factors. The results do not support an effect of geographic distance in these populations. The role of dispersal distance among lakes, population history, environmental pollution and stably inherited methylation versus environmentally triggered methylation in producing the observed epigenetic variation are discussed. Observations support the proposal that epigenetic alterations may associate with phenotypic variation and environmental factors and history of the different lakes.

Effects of environmental conditions and space on species turnover for three plant functional groups in Brazilian savannas

Abstract Aims Different plant functional groups display diverging responses to the same environmental gradients. Here, we assess the effects of environmental and spatial predictors on species turnover of three functional groups of Brazilian savannas (Cerrado) plants—trees, palms and lianas—across the transition zone between the Cerrado and Amazon biomes in central Brazil. Methods We used edaphic, climatic and plant composition data from nine one-hectare plots to assess the effects of the environment and space on species turnover using a Redundancy Analysis and Generalized Dissimilarity Modeling (GDM), associated with variance partitioning. Important Findings We recorded 167 tree species, 5 palms and 4 liana species. Environmental variation was most important in explaining species turnover, relative to geographic distance, but the best predictors differed between functional groups: geographic distance and silt for lianas; silt for palms; geographic distance, temperature and elevation for trees. Geographic distances alone exerted little influence over species turnover for the three functional groups. The pure environmental variation explained most of the liana and palm turnover, while tree turnover was largely explained by the shared spatial and environmental contribution. The effects of geographic distance upon species turnover leveled off at about 300 km for trees, and 200 km for lianas, whereas they were unimportant for palm species turnover. Our results indicate that environmental factors that determine floristic composition and species turnover differ substantially between plant functional groups in savannas. Therefore, we recommend that studies that aim to investigate the role of environmental conditions in determining plant species turnover should examine plant functional groups separately.

Effect of Economic Integration on Agricultural Export Performance in Selected West African Countries

The paper investigates the effect of economic integration on agricultural export performance in West African economies using the gravity model of bilateral trade on the annual time series data straddling the period 1970 to 2016. The empirical evidence is based on the pooled OLS and fixed effects estimator. We find that economic integration, as measured by trade openness, is a remarkably strong predictor of export performance in the region. We also examine the effect of geographical distance measured by effective nominal exchange rates and we find it has a negative effect on agricultural export performance. The paper recommends the adoption of a common currency to help mitigate exchange rate negativity that serves as resistance to trade in the region. Likewise, proactive agricultural research, extension and market driven strategies are strongly advocated for driven competition and economic efficiency within the regional agricultural sector.

Geographical distance puzzle in patent citations: intensive versus extensive margins

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the effects of geographical distance on knowledge spillovers through patent citations across 270 European regions. Despite decreasing transport and communication costs, geographical distance effects are strong and not decreasing. To address this distance puzzle, we distinguish between the extensive margin (the number of cited technologies) and the intensive margin (the average number of citations per technology) of patent citation flows. We confirm an increasing distance effect on knowledge flows at the extensive margin. We show it is compatible with decreasing transport and communication costs.

Variations in Total Species Richness and the Unevenness of Species Abundance Distribution between Two Distant Conus Communities (Neogastropoda): A Case Study in Mannar Gulf (India)

The genus Conus forms a conspicuous and rather homogeneous group within marine Gastropods. This makes it all the more interesting to focus on the sub-communities formed by Conus species and to analyze the potential specificities in the internal organization of species in these communities, in particular species richness, species abundance distribution and the effect of geographical distance between communities on differences in their respective species composition. Accordingly, two Conus communities along the coast in Mannar Gulf (India), separated by 80 km, are considered. Reliable analysis requires, first, to treat exhaustive data from complete samplings or, else – as here – to implement an appropriate extrapolation procedure to complete numerically the partial samplings. After numerical completion, substantial differences were highlighted between the two communities, not only in terms of true (total) species richness but, even more, as regards the profile and the average unevenness of the distributions of species abundance. Also, significant dissimilarity in species composition was found between the two communities, that may be tentatively attributed to either deterministic distance decay in similarity of species composition or, alternatively, to the persistence in the stochastic process of species recruitment from the regional stock of Conus planktonic larvae. This preliminary study yet requests to be complemented by other similar case studies, before drawing any safer interpretative conclusions.

Genotyping-by-sequencing reveals genomic homogeneity among overwintering Pacific Dunlin (Calidris alpina pacifica) aggregations along the Pacific coast of North America

AbstractInformation on how migratory populations are genetically structured during the overwintering season of the annual cycle can improve our understanding of the strength of migratory connectivity and help identify populations as units for management. Here, we use a genotype-by-sequencing approach to investigate whether population genetic structure exists among overwintering aggregations of the Pacific Dunlin subspecies (Calidris alpina pacifica) sampled at 2 spatial scales (within and among overwintering sites) in the eastern Pacific Flyway. Genome-wide analyses of 874 single nucleotide polymorphisms across 80 sampled individuals revealed no evidence for genetic differentiation among aggregations overwintering at 3 locations within the Fraser River Estuary (FRE) of British Columbia. Similarly, comparisons of aggregations in the FRE and those overwintering in southern sites in California and Mexico indicated no genetic segregation between northern and southern overwintering areas. These results suggest that Pacific Dunlin within the FRE, Sacramento Valley (California), and Guerrero Negro (Mexico) are genetically homogeneous, with no evident genetic structure between sampled sites or regions across the overwintering range. Despite no evidence for differentiation among aggregations, we identified a significant effect of geographical distance between sites on the distribution of individual genotypes in a redundancy analysis. A small proportion of the total genotypic variance (R2 =0.036, P = 0.011) was explained by the combined effect of latitude and longitude, suggesting weak genomic patterns of isolation-by-distance that are consistent with chain-like migratory connectivity between breeding and overwintering areas. Our study represents the first genome-scale investigation of population structure for a Dunlin subspecies and provides essential baseline estimates of genomic diversity and differentiation within the Pacific Dunlin.

Bacterial community composition and diversity in Koshi River, the largest river of Nepal

Abstract Large rivers serve as hotspots for the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients in which the role of microorganisms is crucial. Therefore, understanding the bacterial abundance, diversity, community composition, biogeography, and controlling environmental factors in such habitats is important. However, the information is still unexplored in Himalayan Rivers and their associated ecosystem towards the southern slopes, Nepal. Thus, composition and diversity of particle-attached (PA) and free-living (FL) bacteria was investigated along the mainstream and major tributaries of Koshi River i.e. the largest river of Nepal, using 16S rRNA gene-based Illumina MiSeq platform. Bacterial community composition significantly differed in habitat (mainstream and tributaries) and lifestyle (PA and FL), and the habitat variation was more pronounced than lifestyle variation. Likewise, bacterial communities were dissimilar in more geographically distant sites and vice versa. Distinct dominant taxa in mainstream and tributaries were indicative of different input sources and environmental conditions. Ten OTUs belonging to the phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, and Bacteroidetes contributed to more 50% of the bacterial community dissimilarity in two habitats. Geographical distance and water physicochemical properties explained for the most variation in PA and FL bacteria, respectively. Nonetheless, the individual effect of geographical distance was highest in both PA and FL bacteria. Effect of particulate environmental factor like TSS in variation of PA bacteria and that of dissolved environment factors like DOC and EC in FL bacteria was remarkable.

High dispersal levels and lake warming are emergent drivers of cyanobacterial community assembly in peri-Alpine lakes

Disentangling the relative importance of deterministic and stochastic processes in shaping natural communities is central to ecology. Studies about community assembly over broad temporal and spatial scales in aquatic microorganisms are scarce. Here, we used 16S rDNA sequence data from lake sediments to test for community assembly patterns in cyanobacterial phylogenies across ten European peri-Alpine lakes and over a century of eutrophication and climate warming. We studied phylogenetic similarity in cyanobacterial assemblages over spatial and temporal distance, and over environmental gradients, comparing detected patterns with theoretical expectations from deterministic and stochastic processes. We found limited evidence for deviation of lake communities from a random assembly model and no significant effects of geographic distance on phylogenetic similarity, suggesting no dispersal limitation and high levels of stochastic assembly. We detected a weak influence of phosphorus, but no significant effect of nitrogen levels on deviation of community phylogenies from random. We found however a significant decay of phylogenetic similarity for non-random communities over a gradient of air temperature and water column stability. We show how phylogenetic data from sedimentary archives can improve our understanding of microbial community assembly processes, and support previous evidence that climate warming has been the strongest environmental driver of cyanobacterial community assembly over the past century.

Correlations between broad‐scale taxonomic and genetic differentiations suggest a dominant imprint of historical processes on beta diversities

AbstractAimDispersal limitation, environmental selection and drift are known to influence both taxonomic similarity between communities and genetic similarity between populations. However, disentangling the relative roles of these processes on spatial patterns of differentiation—whether regarding taxonomic differentiation (TD) between communities or genetic differentiation (GD) between populations—is challenging. Investigating whether spatial patterns of TD and GD are correlated (β‐SGDCs) is a promising approach to address this issue. Here, we investigated β‐SGDCs over broad spatial scales and 22 freshwater fish species to elucidate the processes shaping TD and GD between drainage basins.LocationGlobal scope, data mainly from Europe and North America.TaxonActinopterygii and Petromyzontiformes (freshwater fishes).MethodsWe used Mantel tests to investigate the raw correlation between TD and GD. We carried out multiple regressions to characterize the effects of geographic distance (proxy of dispersal limitation), environmental distance (proxy of environmental selection) and pairwise harmonic mean area between basins (proxy of drift) on TD and GD taken separately. We then analyzed the correlation between the residuals of these two regressions with Mantel tests. Finally, we investigated whether the variation in β‐SGDC between species was related to species traits.ResultsWe detected an overall positive β‐SGDC, both for the raw and the residual correlations. This implies that, unmeasured effects, other than geographic distance, environmental distance and harmonic mean area, influence the β‐SGDC observed. Values of β‐SGDCs greatly varied between species, but this was not explained by any species traits.Main conclusionsIndependently of the effects of geographic distance, environmental distance and harmonic mean area, the β‐SGDC we observed suggests that historical processes strongly shaped the patterns of TD and GD between basins. Consequently, TD may be an appropriate proxy to explain the influence of historical processes on GD.

Temperature and precipitation, but not geographic distance, explain genetic relatedness among populations in the perennial grass Festuca rubra

AbstractAimsKnowledge of genetic structure of natural populations and its determinants may provide key insights into the ability of species to adapt to novel environments. In many genetic studies, the effects of climate could not be disentangled from the effects of geographic proximity. We aimed to understand the effects of temperature and moisture on genetic diversity of populations and separate these effects from the effects of geographic distance. We also wanted to explore the patterns of distribution of genetic diversity in the system and assess the degree of clonality within the populations. We also checked for possible genome size variation in the system.MethodsWe studied genetic variation within and among 12 populations of the dominant grass Festuca rubra distributed across a unique regional-scale climatic grid in western Norway, Europe and explored the importance of temperature, precipitation and geographic distance for the observed patterns. We also explored the distribution of genetic diversity within and among populations, identified population differentiation and estimated degree of clonality. The analyses used microsatellites as the genetic marker. The analyses were supplemented by flow cytometry of all the material.Important FindingsAll the material corresponds to hexaploid cytotype, indicating that ploidy variation does not play any role in the system. The results indicate that temperature and precipitation were better predictors of genetic relatedness of the populations than geographic distance, suggesting that temperature and precipitation may be important determinants of population differentiation. In addition, precipitation, alone and in interaction with temperature, strongly affected population genotypic diversity suggesting increased clonality towards the coldest and especially the coldest wettest climates. At the same time, individuals from the coldest and wettest climates also had the highest individual genetic diversity, suggesting that only the most heterozygous individuals survive under these harsh climates. Most of the genetic variation was distributed within populations, suggesting that most populations have sufficient genetic diversity to adapt to novel climatic conditions. The alpine populations, i.e. populations which are likely the most endangered by climate change, however, lack this potential due to the high levels of clonality as detected in our study.

Geographic space, relief, and soils predict plant community patterns of Asteraceae in rupestrian grasslands, Brazil

AbstractWe investigated the effects of geographic distance and environmental heterogeneity on Asteraceae communities in the rupestrian grasslands of the Espinhaço Range, southeastern Brazil. Asteraceae species composition and relative abundance were sampled in 21–1 ha plots distributed across park conservation units, comprising an environmental gradient in soils and relief (elevation and slope). We found high levels of heterogeneity overall in assemblages of herbaceous and woody Asteraceae species at the intermediate spatial scale of this study (10–100 km). We found that both relief and soil properties (texture and total exchangeable bases) explained significant proportions of variation in community composition, suggesting that definitions or expansions of conservation units should span the highest possible variability in observed relief and soil values. We also found that Asteraceae distribution exhibited strong spatial structure independent of environmental variation, reinforcing the need to consider conservation across larger areas. Considering the dystrophic character of the soils found in the Espinhaço Range and the few differences in the fertility observed between the sampling units, our results also support the hypothesis that plant distributions in the tropics are controlled by a hierarchy of environmental gradients, where variables such as altitude and exchangeable bases and Al texture are important predictors in low‐fertility soils. We suggest that Asteraceae could be a model family for conservation planning in other countries and regions because it is particularly well represented in open and montane areas of the Neotropics in general.Abstract in Portuguese is available with online material.

Landscape genetic structure of Scirpus mariqueter reveals a putatively adaptive differentiation under strong gene flow in estuaries.

Estuarine organisms grow in highly heterogeneous habitats, and their genetic differentiation is driven by selective and neutral processes as well as population colonization history. However, the relative importance of the processes that underlie genetic structure is still puzzling. Scirpus mariqueter is a perennial grass almost limited in the Changjiang River estuary and its adjacent Qiantang River estuary. Here, using amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), a moderate‐high level of genetic differentiation among populations (range F ST: 0.0310–0.3325) was showed despite large ongoing dispersal. FLOCK assigned all individuals to 13 clusters and revealed a complex genetic structure. Some genetic clusters were limited in peripheries compared with very mixing constitution in center populations, suggesting local adaptation was more likely to occur in peripheral populations. 21 candidate outliers under positive selection were detected, and further, the differentiation patterns correlated with geographic distance, salinity difference, and colonization history were analyzed with or without the outliers. Combined results of AMOVA and IBD based on different dataset, it was found that the effects of geographic distance and population colonization history on isolation seemed to be promoted by divergent selection. However, none‐liner IBE pattern indicates the effects of salinity were overwhelmed by spatial distance or other ecological processes in certain areas and also suggests that salinity was not the only selective factor driving population differentiation. These results together indicate that geographic distance, salinity difference, and colonization history co‐contributed in shaping the genetic structure of S. mariqueter and that their relative importance was correlated with spatial scale and environment gradient.

International news flow theory revisited through a space–time interaction model: Application to a sample of 320,000 international news stories published through RSS flows by 31 daily newspapers in 2015

This article proposes a quantitative model of the circulation of foreign news based on a gravity-like model of spatial interaction disaggregated by time, media, and countries of interest. The analysis of international RSS news stories published by 31 daily newspapers in 2015 demonstrates, first, that many of the laws of circulation of international news predicted half a century ago by Galtung and Ruge and by Östgaard are still valid. The salience of countries in media remains strongly determined by size effects (area, population), with prominent coverage of rich countries (GDP/capita) with elite status (permanent members of United Nations Security Council, the Holy See). The effect of geographical distance and a common language remains a major factor of media coverage in newsrooms. Contradicting the flat world hypothesis, global journalism remains an exception, and provincialism is the rule. The disaggregation of the model by media demonstrates that newspapers are not following exactly the same rules and are more or less sensitive to distance, a common language or elite status. The disaggregation of the model by week suggests that the rules governing foreign news can be temporarily modified by exceptional events that eliminate the usual effects of salience and relatedness, producing short periods of “global consensus” that can benefit small, poor, and remote countries. The residuals of the model help to identify countries that are characterized by a permanent excess of media coverage (like the US or the Australia in our sample) or media that received a coverage more important than usual during several months (Yemen, Ukraine) or years (Syria, Greece) because a situation of long-term political or economic crisis.

Biodiversity decline of fish assemblages after the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River Basin, China

The Yangtze River is a biodiversity hotspot, and it has the most diverse fish assemblages on Earth. Dam construction is one of the main causes of fish biodiversity decline. The Three Gorges Dam (TGD) is the world’s largest hydroelectric dam, which is a cause of concern for ecologists worldwide, mainly regarding the negative impacts on biodiversity and the ecological processes in the region. Information on the biodiversity patterns of fish is vital for informing conservation and management strategies. However, few studies have articulated the principal mechanisms underlying the interactions between the biodiversity patterns of fish and anthropogenic habitat alterations after the TGD construction in the Yangtze River Basin. Here, we aimed to analyze the changes in the biodiversity patterns of the fish in the historical and current periods and to explore the effects of geographical and climate characteristics on the biodiversity patterns. The results showed that the fish species diversity in the current period has experienced a significant decrease. An average of 45.3 native species and 19.3 endemic species have been extirpated in the Yangtze River Basin. A total of 113 fish species have been classified as Critically Endangered (22), Endangered (39), Vulnerable (29) and Near Threatened (23). In addition, the alpha and gamma diversity have also decreased significantly. The analysis of the beta diversity showed a significant trend towards taxonomic homogenization. We found significant effects of geographical distance, temperature, precipitation and altitude on the beta diversity. This study will provide important information for the conservation and management of fish biodiversity in the Yangtze River Basin and other areas.

Environment and evolutionary history shape phylogenetic turnover in European tetrapods

Phylogenetic turnover quantifies the evolutionary distance among species assemblages and is central to understanding the main drivers shaping biodiversity. It is affected both by geographic and environmental distance between sites. Therefore, analyzing phylogenetic turnover in environmental space requires removing the effect of geographic distance. Here, we apply a novel approach by deciphering phylogenetic turnover of European tetrapods in environmental space after removing geographic land distance effects. We demonstrate that phylogenetic turnover is strongly structured in environmental space, particularly in ectothermic tetrapods, and is well explained by macroecological characteristics such as niche size, species richness and relative phylogenetic diversity. In ectotherms, rather recent evolutionary processes were important in structuring phylogenetic turnover along environmental gradients. In contrast, early evolutionary processes had already shaped the current structure of phylogenetic turnover in endotherms. Our approach enables the disentangling of the idiosyncrasies of evolutionary processes such as the degree of niche conservatism and diversification rates in structuring biodiversity.

Bayesian spatio‐temporal reconstruction reveals rapid diversification and Pleistocene range expansion in the widespread columnar cactus Pilosocereus

ABSTRACTAimPilosocereus is one of the richest and most widespread genera of columnar cacti, extending from south‐west USA to southern Brazil. Most species occur in the seasonally dry tropical forest biome but can also be found in xeric microhabitats inside woody savannas (Cerrado) and moist forests (Brazilian Atlantic forest). The genus exhibits a highly disjunct distribution across the Neotropics. Using a 90% complete species‐level phylogeny, we reconstructed the spatio‐temporal evolution of Pilosocereus to explore the historical factors behind the species richness of Neotropical dry formations.LocationSouth America, Mesoamerica, Caribbean, south‐western North America.TaxonGenus Pilosocereus (Cactaceae, Cactoideae, Cereeae).MethodsWe used plastid and nuclear DNA sequences and Bayesian inference to estimate phylogenetic relationships and lineage divergence times. Ancestral ranges were inferred within the Pilosocereus subgenus Pilosocereus s. s. clade using the Dispersal–Extinction–Cladogenesis model in a Bayesian framework to account for parameter estimation uncertainty and the effect of geographical distance on dispersal rates.ResultsPilosocereus was recovered as polyphyletic, with representatives of other Cereeae nested within. The Pilosocereus subgenus Pilosocereus s. s. clade originated around the Pliocene–Pleistocene transition (2.7 Ma), probably within the Caatinga seasonally dry tropical forest (SDTF) formation. Species divergences were dated in the Middle and Upper Pleistocene, often constrained to the same geographic region but also associated to migration events to other xeric habitats in Mesoamerica and northern South America; dispersal rates were not dependent on distance.Main conclusionsDiversification dynamics in the Pilosocereus subgenus Pilosocereus s. s. clade agree with other infrageneric studies in cacti. Species divergence was rapid, driven by in situ diversification and migration events between SDTF dry formations and xeric microhabitats within other biomes and probably linked to Pleistocene climatic changes. This dynamic history differs from that found in woody SDTF lineages, which are older in age and characterized by low‐dispersal rates and long‐term isolation.