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To provide a nuclear perspective on phylogenetic relationships between the revealed lineages we carried out the InterSINE-PCR analysis (for the first time for agamid lizards) using two independent primer systems. In addition we used demographic analysis of mtDNA data estimating mismatch distribution for the revealed lineages. Modern range of Ph. helios-copus-complex encompasses vast areas from Araks river valley in easternmost Turkey and southern Armenia in the west to Dzhungarian Gobi in western Mongolia in the east and from Altai territory of Russia (Kulunda) in the north to Fars province in central Iran in the south (Abadeh). We analyzed distribution data of the species complex and scrutinized locality information from 100 published literature sources and catalogues of 23 herpetological collections. Altogether 726 localities were revealed, for 627 of them we were able to identify exact geographic coordinates. After the locality information was plotted on the map, distribution of species and revealed lineages was analyzed using range modeling algorithm BIOCLIM using the software DIVA-GIS ver. 5.2.
Results of molecular survey show that at least 12 separate phylogenetic lineages (4 within Ph. per-sicus and 8 within Ph. helioscopus) within the species complex, all lineages are have high support values. Furthermore, analysis of InterSINE-PCR fingerprinting profiles confirmed deep genetic differentiation within the revealed lineages and resulted in highly congruent topology with high or
moderate support values. Spatial analysis of distribution patterns within the species complex indicated significant structuring of the range in general coinciding with the revealed distributions of mtDNA lineages. Thus, presence of two isolated lineages of Ph. helioscopus in Turkmenistan is confirmed. Lineages of Ph. persicus have different altitude preferences and are isolated with mountain barriers.
Ecological range modeling proved to be useful for comparing potentially optimal habitats of different lineages. Peripheral areas surrounding the species complex range and central Turkmenistan deserts in the middle had the lowest suitability. The area of potentially unsuitable areas in central Kazakhstan separating subspecies Ph. h. helioscopus and Ph. h. varius is not well coinciding with revealed mtDNA pattern (according to molecular data this border is located further to the east). Spatial analysis of potential habitats indicated specific ecological preferences of each of the studied lineages. However, lineages restricted to isolated mountain valleys have much better model fits and their potential habitats are almost not overlapping, whereas optimal habitats of lineages inhabiting lowland and plain territories significantly overlap.
Part of the molecular analysis was completed within the international program «Consortium for the Barcoding of Life (CBOL)».
Key words: Agamidae, Phrynocephalus, In-terSINE-PCR, COI, molecular systematics, phy-logeography.
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE TRENDS OF SPOTTED TOAD-HEADED AGAMA, PHRYNOCEPHALUS GUTTATUS, IN ITS NORTHERN HABITAT IN THE VOLGA REGION
Vasily G. Tabachishin
Saratov branch of A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences 24 Rabochaya Str., Saratov 410028, Russia E-mail: [email protected]
During our 1998 - 2008 field surveys in the Volgograd region and adjacent territories of the Astrakhan region and Republic Kalmykia, data on the distribution and abundance of Phrynocephalus gut-tatus (Gmelin, 1789) were collected. Now the population of Ph. guttatus in the Volgograd region is located on an isolated sandy massif on the left bank of
the Don River within the Kalach-on-Don and Gorodishche districts. The abundance indices of Ph. guttatus substantially change within the limits of the peripheral population's habitat, which is caused by the high mosaicity of microstacies, the dynamics of projection vegetation covering parameters and its character, and some other factors. E.g., in the sum-
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mer of 2005 and 2008 periods the abundance of Ph. guttatus varied from 3.6 and 4.1 ind/ha, respectively, on sites in inter-knoll depressions up to 34.7 and 32.9 on weakly-fixed barkhan-type hilly sands with rare motley-grass and shrubby vegetation.
The abundance of Ph. guttatus in Kalmykia was 15 - 25 ind/ha (Kireyev, 1982) and 5.9 - 99.1 ind/ha (Badmaeva, 1983). In 2000 and 2003, the abundance of Ph. guttatus in this territory varied from 1.2 to 27.8 ind/ha, with its maximum values being characteristic of the edges of semifixed hillock sands. Similar results were also obtained for small-hillock and hillock sands in the territory of Krasnyi Yar and Kharabali administrative districts of the Astrakhan region, where the abundance of Ph. guttatus varied from 13.6 to 38.5 ind/ha (1998) and from 5.3 to 35.4 ind/ha (2006). In May 2001, at similar sites of the isolated sandy massif Shkili (Akhtubinsk district, Astrakhan region) the abundance of the species was 9.7 ind/ha.
The revealed trend in the dynamics of quantitative indices is apparently due to the dynamics of abiotic factors. The indices of total solar radiation and annual precipitation level should be considered as determinants in this situation. E.g., A.A. Tishkov (1996) has shown that the modern warming in the steppe zone of the Russian Plain began at the end of the 19 century and reached its maximum within 1930 - 1940. Within 1940 - 1970, a cold spell was noted, and in the last decade of the 20 century the average annual temperatures were exceeded almost every year. Besides this gradual increase of the average annual temperatures, the climatic trend dynamics manifests itself as increased precipitation. It
is enough to point out that in the territory under survey from late 1970s till mid-1990s, the annual precipitation exceeded its rate by 50 mm, in some years - by 120 - 190 mm. By F.R. Zaydelman et al.'s data (1998), the period from 1986 till 1995 was characterized by higher moisture than the 1975 -1985 period. Moreover, in the 1990s these indices were synchronized with the reduction in the total head of livestock, which entailed the beginning of large-scale restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity reconstruction. In this period, mass invasion of turf-cereal communities towards past waste grounds and the formation of vast fallow lands in the place of agricultural fields (Neronov, 1998) were observed. Let us point out that, for Ph. guttatus, the humidization of living conditions is the determinant to limit its expansion north.
Thus, besides anthropogenic influence, clima-togenic successions causing the mesophilization of steppe vegetation etc. have became a significant mechanism of transformation of natural ecosystems. To no small degree these changes affect spatially-separated local populations of animals. As to Ph. guttatus' populations, their isolated existence leads to a sharp increase of the specificity of their morphophisiological organization and gradual (sometimes sharp) contraction of the habitat. All these processes display most obviously in the conditions of the Lower-Volga region and adjacent territories, where the species' habitat has somewhat narrowed and the trend of abundance reduction of Ph. guttatus is obvious.
Key words: Phrynocephalus guttatus, biotopi-cal distribution, abundance, Lower-Volga region.
PRELIMINARY STUDIES OF THE GENUS ACANTHOCERCUS (SAURIA: AGAMIDAE) IN THE CONTEXT OF THE ARID CORRIDOR IN AFRICA
Philipp Wagner
Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig 160 Adenauerallee, D-53113 Bonn, Germany E-mail: [email protected]
African lizards in the genus Acanthocercus are widespread in wooded savannahs from northeastern to southwestern Africa. Therefore, they are an ideal group for testing biogeographic hypotheses and evolutionary studies of arid corridor distributions and colonization events in Africa. However, to
test these hypotheses a clear systematic and phy-logenetic framework for the genus is needed but currently lacking. Constructing a phylogeny like this requires the solution of problems in different aspects of species determination, taxonomy and relationships.
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