Niche Conservatism: Integrating Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation Biology

Abstract

■ Abstract Niche conservatism,is the tendency,of species to retain ancestral eco- logical characteristics. In the recent literature, a debate has emerged as to whether niches are conserved. We suggest that simply testing whether,niches are conserved,is not by itself particularly helpful or interesting and that a more,useful focus is on the patterns that niche conservatism,may,(or may,not) create. We focus specifically on how niche conservatism,in climatic tolerances may,limit geographic,range expansion,and how this one type of niche conservatism may be important in (a) allopatric speciation, (b) historical biogeography, (c) patterns of species richness, (d ) community structure, (e) the spread of invasive, human-introduced species, ( f ) responses of species to global climate change, and (g) human history, from 13,000 years ago to the present. We de- scribe how,these effects of niche conservatism,can be examined,with new,tools for ecological niche modeling.