@ARTICLE{TreeBASE2Ref20899, author = {Peter Trontelj}, title = {Ecomorphological convergence of cave communities}, year = {2012}, keywords = {Competition, Ecomorph, Troglomorphic Adaptation, Subterranean Biology, Niphargus}, doi = {}, url = {http://}, pmid = {}, journal = {Evolution}, volume = {}, number = {}, pages = {}, abstract = {Extreme selective environments are commonly believed to funnel evolution towards a few predictable outcomes. Caves are well known extreme environments with characteristically adapted faunas that are similar in appearance, physiology and behavior all over the world even if not closely related. Morphological diversity between closely related cave species has been explained by difference in time since colonization and different ecological influence from the surface. Here we tested a more classical hypothesis: morphological diversity is niche-based, and different morphologies reflect properties of microhabitats within caves. We analyzed seven communities with altogether 30 species of the subterranean amphipod (crustacean) genus Niphargus using multivariate morphometrics, multinomial logit models cross-validation, and phylogenetic reconstruction. Species clustered into four distinct ecomorph classes ? small pore, cave stream, cave lake, and lake giants ? each associated with specific cave microhabitats and of multiple independent phylogenetic origins. Traits commonly regarded as adaptation to caves, like antenna length, were shown to be related to microhabitat parameters, like flow velocity. These results demonstrate that under the selection pressure of extreme environment the ecomorphological structure of communities can converge. Thus, morphological diversity does not result from adaptive response to temporal and ecological gradients, but from fine-level niche partitioning.} }

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