Data from: The roles of ecology, behavior and effective population size in the evolution of a community

Organismal traits such as ecological specialization and migratory behavior may affect colonization potential, population persistence, and degree of isolation, factors that determine the composition and genetic structure of communities. However, studies focusing on community assembly rarely consider these factors jointly. We sequenced 16 nuclear and one mitochondrial genes from Caucasian and European populations of 30 forest-dwelling avian species that represent diverse ecological (specialist-generalist) and behavioral (migratory-resident) backgrounds. We tested the effects of organismal traits on population divergence and community assembly in the Caucasus forest, a continental mountain island setting. We found that (1) there is no concordance in divergence times between the Caucasus forest bird populations and their European counterparts, (2) habitat specialists tend to be more divergent than generalists, and (3) residents tend to be more divergent than migrants. Thus, specialists and residents contribute to the high level of endemism of Caucasus forest avifauna more than do generalists and migrants. Patterns of genetic differentiation are better explained by differences in effective population sizes, an often overlooked factor in comparative studies of phylogeography and speciation, than by divergence times or levels of gene flow. Our results suggest that the Caucasus forest avifauna was assembled through time via dispersal and/or multiple vicariant events, rather than originating simultaneously via a single isolation event. Our study is one of the first multi-locus, multi-species analyses revealing how ecological and migratory traits impact the evolutionary history of community formation on a continental island.生物性状（如生态特化与迁徙行为）可影响物种定殖潜力、种群存续能力与隔离程度，而这些因素正是决定群落组成与遗传结构的关键要素。然而，现有针对群落构建（community assembly）的研究极少同时考量上述各类因素。本研究对30种林栖鸟类的高加索种群与欧洲种群进行了测序，覆盖16个核基因（nuclear gene）与1个线粒体基因（mitochondrial gene），所涉物种涵盖了多样的生态位特化-泛化与迁徙-留居行为背景。我们以作为大陆山地岛屿的高加索森林为研究场景，探究了生物性状对种群分化（population divergence）与群落构建的影响。研究结果显示：（1）高加索林栖鸟类种群与其欧洲对应种群的分化时间并不一致；（2）生境特化类群的种群分化程度普遍高于泛化类群；（3）留居类群的种群分化程度普遍高于迁徙类群。据此，生境特化类群与留居类群对高加索林栖鸟类区系高特有性水平的贡献，要高于泛化类群与迁徙类群。相较于分化时间或基因流（gene flow）水平，种群遗传分化模式更适合用有效种群大小（effective population size）差异来解释——而这一因素在系统地理学（phylogeography）与物种形成（speciation）的比较研究中常被忽视。本研究结果表明，高加索林栖鸟类区系是随时间通过扩散事件与/或多轮隔离分化事件逐步构建而成，而非通过单次孤立事件同步起源。本研究是首批揭示生态与迁徙性状如何影响大陆山地岛屿群落构建演化历史的多位点、多物种分析之一。