Comparative rangewide phylogeography of four endemic Taiwanese bat species

Phylogeographic reconstructions of codistributed taxa can help reveal the interplay between abiotic factors, such as altitude and climate, and species-specific attributes, in shaping patterns of population genetic structure. Recent studies also demonstrate the value of both rangewide sampling and species distribution modelling (SDM) in comparative phylogeography. Here, we combine these approaches to study the population histories of four phylogenetically related forest-dependent bat species. All are endemic to the mountainous island of Taiwan but show differences in their tolerance to altitude, with Murina gracilis considered to be a high-altitude specialist, M. recondita and Kerivoula sp. low-altitude specialists, and M. puta an altitudinal generalist. We tested the prediction that contrasting habitat preferences would impact on patterns of past and contemporary gene flow and found broad concordance between the results of population genetic analyses and species distribution models based on the Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate. Both lowland species showed evidence of genetic divergence between the east and west of the island, consistent with SDMs that indicated the Central Mountain Range (CMR) has presented a long-term and continuous barrier to gene flow since before the Last Glacial Maximum. In contrast, Murina gracilis and M. puta showed lower degrees of historical isolation and genetic differentiation associated with the CMR, reflecting greater gene flow, possibly coupled with past population growth in M. puta. Together our results highlight the usefulness of combining distribution models with phylogeographic analyses to understand the drivers of genetic structure.