@MASTERSTHESIS{ 2021:2053211779,
 	title = {Ecological niche modelling of the Leopardus tigrinus species complex (Mammalia, Felidae) sheds light on its elusive evolutionary history},
 	year = {2021},
 	url = "http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/9679",
 	abstract = "The evolutionary history of Leopardus tigrinus has been studied based on different approaches, including genetic and morphologic data. These analyses have suggested that this taxon is a species complex distributed in Central America (Costa Rica and Panama) and South America. This kind of taxonomic problem can also be approached from an ecological perspective, allowing the assessment of the environmental conditions that allow the presence of the focal species, identifying local adaptations of populations, and proposing areas that, due to their environmental conditions, can act as historical barriers for dispersal, favoring the genetic differentiation among the proposed groups. Therefore, the objectives of this project were: (i) to evaluate the ecological niche differences among regional L. tigrinus populations to determine the existence of ecological divergence among them; and (ii) to identify environmental barriers to the historical dispersal of these organisms that could have driven the differentiation among the proposed groups. With respect to the second objective, we have considered four hypothetical barriers: The Panama center, the Amazon, the Llanos e the Huancabamba depression; each of them was evaluated across three time periods, last glacial maximum (LGM), mid-Holocene and present, to determine its potential effect over the time. For this, we constructed niche models for the L. tigrinus complex as a whole, for each regional group proposed to comprise it, and for hypothetical delimitations of the populations that occur in the Guiana Shield. We used the Maximum Entropy algorithm implemented in the “kuenm” package of the R software to construct the models for the different time periods, and the omission rate and the area under the ROC curve as metrics for their evaluation. The divergence between the modeled niches was evaluated in two dimensions: in geographic space using Schoener’s D index with the ENMeval package; and in environmental space through the minimum volume of the ellipsoid (MVE) approach implemented in the NicheA software. In terms of ecological differences, the results suggested that the groups proposed on the basis of morphology have low overlap both on the geographic and environmental levels. On the other hand, the Andean groups suggested by mitochondrial DNA data have a high geographic and environmental overlap, but differ from the groups in the Guiana Shield and NE Brazil. Regarding the exploratory analyses carried out for the Guiana Shield, a high environmental and geographical similarity was found with NE Brazil, although this result may have been influenced by the difference in sample size between the two regions. With respect to the barriers, the results suggest that the Huancabamba depression does not act as a barrier in any scenario, the Panama Center is a barrier only for the Andean group, with some connectivity in the LGM, but only when data from the entire Andean region and the Guiana Shield were included. The Amazon region was inferred to be a barrier for all the groups within the complex, with the expansion of the distribution of some groups in this area in the LGM. Finally, the Llanos have always been a barrier for all groups, except for the NE Brazil group. The results of this work indicate that it is unlikely that there is gene flow between groups in the Andean region and eastern South America, however more Guiana shield data are required to properly assess this result. This work further identifies that, in addition to the morphological and genetic differences already reported for L. guttulus, the species has a high environmental divergence with the other groups proposed within the L. tigrinus complex. In conclusion, this work adds an ecological component that supports the differentiation of groups that have been proposed to comprise the L. tigrinus complex, and further identifies areas whose low X habitat suitability for these cats have likely contributed to the evolutionary divergence among these regional populations.",
 	publisher = {Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul},
 	scholl = {Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia e Evolução da Biodiversidade},
 	note = {Escola de Ciências}
}