Linking fluvial barriers and habitat specialization in the evolution of microendemism in riverine fishes

Clicks: 1
ID: 320117
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal

Ranked #243 of 244 articles by views in international journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 244 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Species with highly restricted geographic distributions are key components of biodiversity hotspots. In southeastern North America, a global hotspot of temperate freshwater biodiversity, such microendemic distributions exhibited by freshwater fishes have been attributed to geographic isolation related to spatial shifts in suitable habitat associated with climatic and geologic processes. Here, through examination of phylogenetic relationships and analysis of abiotic characteristics of the environment, we test hypotheses for the origin of microendemism within the Holiday Darter Etheostoma brevirostrum (Suttkus and Etnier) species complex. Phylogenomic analyses of double digest restriction-site associated DNA (ddRAD) sequence data find four geographically disjunct and highly diverged lineages each of which exhibit remarkably narrow geographic distributions in the Coosa River system in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee, USA. We employ comparative analyses of environmental variables to quantify the degree of ecological specialization exhibited by E. brevirostrum as compared to other darter lineages that have also diversified at small scales within other river basins. We propose that ecological specialization to high-elevation streams underlain by metamorphic rock as well as the presence of knickpoints, steep sections of river channels that act as barriers to dispersal between tributaries, generated opportunities for geographic isolation and diversification in E. brevirostrum.
Reference Key
openalex_W7167627516 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Maya F. Stokes, Daemin Kim, Brett Albanese, Daniel J. MacGuigan, M DAVIDSON, Ava Ghezelayagh, Thomas J. Near
Journal international journal of systematic and evolutionary microbiology
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/evolut/qpag123
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpag123
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.