Browsing by Author "Liggins L"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Authors’ Reply to Letter to the Editor: Continued improvement to genetic diversity indicator for CBD
    (Springer Nature BV, 2021-08) Laikre L; Hohenlohe PA; Allendorf FW; Bertola LD; Breed MF; Bruford MW; Funk WC; Gajardo G; González-Rodríguez A; Grueber CE; Hedrick PW; Heuertz M; Hunter ME; Johannesson K; Liggins L; MacDonald AJ; Mergeay J; Moharrek F; O’Brien D; Ogden R; Orozco-terWengel P; Palma-Silva C; Pierson J; Paz-Vinas I; Russo I-RM; Ryman N; Segelbacher G; Sjögren-Gulve P; Waits LP; Vernesi C; Hoban S
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    Comparative phylogeography in the genomic age: Opportunities and challenges
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2022-12) McGaughran A; Liggins L; Marske KA; Dawson MN; Schiebelhut LM; Lavery SD; Knowles LL; Moritz C; Riginos C; Byrne M
    Aim: We consider the opportunities and challenges comparative phylogeography (CP) faces in the genomic age to determine: (1) how we can maximise the potential of big CP analyses to advance biogeographic and macroevolutionary theory; and (2) what we can, and will struggle, to achieve using CP approaches in this era of genomics. Location: World-wide. Taxon: All. Methods: We review the literature to discuss the future of CP - particularly examining CP insights enabled by genomics that may not be possible for single species and/or few molecular markers. We focus on how geography and species' natural histories interact to yield congruent and incongruent patterns of neutral and adaptive processes in the context of both historical and recent rapid evolution. We also consider how CP genomic data are being stored, accessed, and shared. Results: With the widespread availability of genomic data, the shift from a single- to a multi-locus perspective is resulting in detailed historical inferences and an improved statistical rigour in phylogeography. However, the time and effort required for collecting co-distributed species and accruing species-specific ecological knowledge continue to be limiting factors. Bioinformatic skills and user-friendly analytical tools, alongside the computational infrastructure required for big data, can also be limiting. Main conclusions: Over the last ~35 years, there has been much progress in understanding how intraspecific genetic variation is geographically distributed. The next major steps in CP will be to incorporate evolutionary processes and community perspectives to account for patterns and responses among co-distributed species and across temporal scales, including those related to anthropogenic change. However, the full potential of CP will only be realised if we employ robust study designs within a sound comparative framework. We advocate that phylogeographers adopt such consistent approaches to enhance future comparisons to present-day findings.
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    Importance of timely metadata curation to the global surveillance of genetic diversity
    (Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology, 2023-08) Crandall ED; Toczydlowski RH; Liggins L; Holmes AE; Ghoojaei M; Gaither MR; Wham BE; Pritt AL; Noble C; Anderson TJ; Barton RL; Berg JT; Beskid SG; Delgado A; Farrell E; Himmelsbach N; Queeno SR; Trinh T; Weyand C; Bentley A; Deck J; Riginos C; Bradburd GS; Toonen RJ
    Genetic diversity within species represents a fundamental yet underappreciated level of biodiversity. Because genetic diversity can indicate species resilience to changing climate, its measurement is relevant to many national and global conservation policy targets. Many studies produce large amounts of genome-scale genetic diversity data for wild populations, but most (87%) do not include the associated spatial and temporal metadata necessary for them to be reused in monitoring programs or for acknowledging the sovereignty of nations or Indigenous peoples. We undertook a distributed datathon to quantify the availability of these missing metadata and to test the hypothesis that their availability decays with time. We also worked to remediate missing metadata by extracting them from associated published papers, online repositories, and direct communication with authors. Starting with 848 candidate genomic data sets (reduced representation and whole genome) from the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, we determined that 561 contained mostly samples from wild populations. We successfully restored spatiotemporal metadata for 78% of these 561 data sets (n = 440 data sets with data on 45,105 individuals from 762 species in 17 phyla). Examining papers and online repositories was much more fruitful than contacting 351 authors, who replied to our email requests 45% of the time. Overall, 23% of our email queries to authors unearthed useful metadata. The probability of retrieving spatiotemporal metadata declined significantly as age of the data set increased. There was a 13.5% yearly decrease in metadata associated with published papers or online repositories and up to a 22% yearly decrease in metadata that were only available from authors. This rapid decay in metadata availability, mirrored in studies of other types of biological data, should motivate swift updates to data-sharing policies and researcher practices to ensure that the valuable context provided by metadata is not lost to conservation science forever. Importancia de la curación oportuna de metadatos para la vigilancia mundial de ladiversidad genéticaResumen:La diversidad genética intraespecífica representa un nivel fundamental, pero ala vez subvalorado de la biodiversidad. La diversidad genética puede indicar la resilienciade una especie ante el clima cambiante, por lo que su medición es relevante para muchosobjetivos de la política de conservación mundial y nacional. Muchos estudios producenuna gran cantidad de datos sobre la diversidad a nivel genético de las poblaciones silvestres,aunque la mayoría (87%) no incluye los metadatos espaciales y temporales asociados paraque sean reutilizados en los programas de monitoreo o para reconocer la soberanía de lasnaciones o los pueblos indígenas. Realizamos un “datatón” distribuido para cuantificar ladisponibilidad de estos metadatos faltantes y para probar la hipótesis que supone que estadisponibilidad se deteriora con el tiempo. También trabajamos para reparar los metadatosfaltantes al extraerlos de los artículos asociados publicados, los repositorios en línea yla comunicación directa con los autores. Iniciamos con 838 candidatos de conjuntos dedatos genómicos (representación reducida y genoma completo) tomados de la colabo-ración internacional para la base de datos de secuencias de nucleótidos y determinamosque 561 incluían en su mayoría muestras tomadas de poblaciones silvestres. Restauramoscon éxito los metadatos espaciotemporales en el 78% de estos 561 conjuntos de datos (n=440 conjuntos de datos con información sobre 45,105 individuos de 762 especies en 17filos). El análisis de los artículos y los repositorios virtuales fue mucho más productivo quecontactar a los 351 autores, quienes tuvieron un 45% de respuesta a nuestros correos. Engeneral, el 23% de nuestras consultas descubrieron metadatos útiles. La probabilidad derecuperar metadatos espaciotemporales declinó de manera significativa conforme incre-mentó la antigüedad del conjunto de datos. Hubo una disminución anual del 13.5% enlos metadatos asociados con los artículos publicados y los repositorios virtuales y hastauna disminución anual del 22% en los metadatos que sólo estaban disponibles mediante lacomunicación con los autores. Este rápido deterioro en la disponibilidad de los metadatos,duplicado en estudios de otros tipos de datos biológicos, debería motivar la pronta actual-ización de las políticas del intercambio de datos y las prácticas de los investigadores paraasegurar que en las ciencias de la conservación no se pierda para siempre el contexto valiosoproporcionado por los metadatos.
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    Metadata preservation and stewardship for genomic data is possible, but must happen now
    (2022-09-15) Crandall ED; Toczydlowski RH; Liggins L; Holmes AE; Ghoojaei M; Gaither MR; Wham BE; Pritt AL; Noble C; Anderson TJ; Barton RL; Berg JT; Beskid SG; Delgado A; Farrell E; Himmelsbach N; Queeno SR; Trinh T; Weyand C; Bentley A; Deck J; Riginos C; Bradburd GS; Toonen RJ
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    Molecular phylogenetics reveals the evolutionary history of marine fishes (Actinopterygii) endemic to the subtropical islands of the Southwest Pacific
    (Elsevier Inc, 2022-11) Samayoa AP; Struthers CD; Trnski T; Roberts CD; Liggins L
    Remote oceanic islands of the Pacific host elevated levels of actinopterygian (ray-finned fishes) endemism. Characterizing the evolutionary histories of these endemics has provided insight into the generation and maintenance of marine biodiversity in many regions. The subtropical islands of Lord Howe, Norfolk, and Rangitāhua (Kermadec) in the Southwest Pacific are yet to be comprehensively studied. Here, we characterize the spatio-temporal diversification of marine fishes endemic to these Southwest Pacific islands by combining molecular phylogenies and the geographic distribution of species. We built Bayesian ultrametric trees based on open-access and newly generated sequences for five mitochondrial and ten nuclear loci, and using fossil data for time calibration. We present the most comprehensive phylogenies to date for marine ray-finned fish genera, comprising 34 species endemic to the islands, including the first phylogenetic placements for 11 endemics. Overall, our topologies confirm the species status of all endemics, including three undescribed taxa. Our phylogenies highlight the predominant affinity of these endemics with the Australian fish fauna (53%), followed by the East Pacific (15%), and individual cases where the closest sister taxon of our endemic is found in the Northwest Pacific and wider Indo-Pacific. Nonetheless, for a quarter of our focal endemics, their geographic affinity remains unresolved due to sampling gaps within their genera. Our divergence time estimates reveal that the majority of endemic lineages (67.6%) diverged after the emergence of Lord Howe (6.92 Ma), the oldest subtropical island in the Southwest Pacific, suggesting that these islands have promoted diversification. However, divergence ages of some endemics pre-date the emergence of the islands, suggesting they may have originated outside of these islands, or, in some cases, ages may be overestimated due to unsampled taxa. To fully understand the role of the Southwest Pacific subtropical islands as a 'cradle' for diversification, our study advocates for further regional surveys focused on tissue collection for DNA analysis.
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    The future of molecular ecology in Aotearoa New Zealand: an early career perspective
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2022-07-14) Liggins L; Arranz V; Braid HE; Carmelet-Rescan D; Elleouet J; Egorova E; Gemmell MR; Hills SFK; Holland LP; Koot EM; Lischka A; Maxwell KH; McCartney LJ; Nguyen HTT; Noble C; Olmedo Rojas P; Parvizi E; Pearman WS; Sweatman JAN; Kaihoro TR; Walton K; Aguirre JD; Stewart LC; Moss S
    The skills, insights, and genetic data gathered by molecular ecologists are pivotal to addressing many contemporary biodiversity, environmental, cultural, and societal challenges. Concurrently, the field of molecular ecology is being revolutionised by rapid technological development and diversification in the scope of its applications. Hence, it is timely to review the future opportunities of molecular ecological research in Aotearoa New Zealand, and to reconcile them with philosophies of open science and the implications for Indigenous data sovereignty and benefit sharing. Future molecular ecologists need to be interdisciplinary, equipped to embrace innovation, and informed about the broader societal relevance of their research, as well as advocates of best practice. Here, we present an ideal future for molecular ecology in Aotearoa, based on the perspectives of 23 early career researchers from tertiary institutions, Crown Research Institutes, research consultancies, and government agencies. Our article provides: a guide for molecular ecologists embarking on genetic research in Aotearoa, and a primer for individuals in a position to support early career molecular ecologists in Aotearoa. We outline our goals and highlight specific considerations–for molecular ecology and the scientific community in Aotearoa–based on our own experience and aspirations, and invite other researchers to join this dialogue.