Dear Rense,

in the Hungarian literature for vegetation ecology and chorology there are more interesting examples (e.g. differences  in habitat characterization of Cotinus in the Balkan Peninsula and in the Pannonian Basin; or differences in behavior of steppe species in Eastern Europe and in Hungary) - however, they are rather examples and forming not a clear theory. Maybe you can check this paper: Zólyomi, B. (1987): Coenotone, ecotone and their role of preserving relic species. — Acta Bot. Hung. 33, 3-18. (Many relic species in Hungary grow in special habitats, on special substrates, etc.)

best wishes

KG

Dear Gergö: köszönöm szépen! I will look into that, sounds promising!

Hi Rense, 

Have a look at this interesting paper that deals with ecological singularities of species at the "rear edge" of their distributions (Hampe & Petit 2005 - Ecology Letters)

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00739.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

It has been a couple years since I have read this review paper, but I think it may address what you are asking, in regards to evolution of subsets of a species: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/Supplement_2/19659.short

Ignasi, Alina, thanks a lot for your help! I will certainly read these papers!

Hi Rense,

Have a look on this paper:

Lennon J.J., Kunin W.E., Corne S., Carver S., & Van Hees W.W.S. (2002) Are Alaskan trees found in locally more favourable sites in marginal areas? Global Ecology and Biogeography, 11, 103–114.

Best,

martin

Thank you, Martin!

and on this, if you like butterflies :)

Oliver T., Hill J.K., Thomas C.D., Brereton T., & Roy D.B. (2009) Changes in habitat specificity of species at their climatic range boundaries. Ecology Letters, 12, 1091–102.

I do!

Thank you Stelios!

The notion that species are more abundant in the centre of their ranges was already described in 1995 by Brown et al (Ecology 76:2028-2013); it is therefore likely that they also will occupy more habitats. Opdam & Washer (2004, BiolCons 117: 285-297) explore the interaction between range, habitat and fragmentation and species distribution. Maybe their references provide some insight in this topic.

With regard to birds it is well known that species have a wider habitat amplitude in the centres of their distribution range. A typical example is the Willow warbler, a northern species. In Scandinavia it occurs in a wide range of habitats, including dense forests while in the south of the Netherlands and further south it is restricted to open habitats. However, I don’t know any papers describing these patterns.

Dank je, Henk! Gek toch dat het een notie is die door veel ecologen wordt onderschreven, maar dat er niet (nauwelijks?) systematisch onderzoek aan is gedaan....

Ik kan me zo voorstellen dat in Westhoff, Plantengroei van de Waddeneilanden, een aantal voorbeelden staan. Hier komen in ons land namelijk soorten aan de rand van hun areaal voor, en dat kan dan een andere niche zijn. Zal wel lastig zoeken zijn, want je moet dan wel de soorten kennen die hier de rand van hun areaal bereiken (oa Beredruif).

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2461494?sid=21106315671603&uid=70&uid=2129&uid=3738736&uid=2&uid=4

Brown

http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CEcQFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ecoevol.ufg.br%2Fdiniz%2FECO_GEO%2FSagarin-etal2006-TREE.pdf&ei=4eMbVdayE-Th7Abx6oHgBA&usg=AFQjCNFB9GoDyy8dhMmC2eQGitLoSzQX6Q&sig2=cvr5NzfmWsoiRweTeG2_Jg&bvm=bv.89744112,d.ZGU&cad=rja

Hoi Rense, graag gedaan. En ja, inderdaad vreemd dat er zo weinig over geschreven is.

Ha Ron, dank je!!!

 This may also  be relevant:

Pironon et al, 2015. GEB.

Do geographic, climatic or historical ranges differentiate the performance of central versus peripheral populations?

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geb.12263/abstract

Perfect Timothy, thanks a lot!

See Robert Holt's work from around 2002-2003:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99: 14872-14877.

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 270: 215-224

Evolutionary Ecology Research. 5: 159-178

Hi,

Check also Wasowicz et al 2013 in Flora 208 (2013) 648– 673 about alien flora in Iceland

Best,

Kasia

 Dear Matt and Katarzyna, thanks a lot! I will check those references!

Dear Rense Haveman,

In my opinion, there is conceptual discrepancy in your question.

Ecological niche (defined by Hutchinson) is an attribute of the species not the geographical space.

Best,

Peter

I entirely agree with Péter Sály. However you may want to have some more case studies and discussion about the theme in the following papers:

Serrano H.C., Antunes C., Pinto MJ., Máguas C., Martins-Loução MA and Branquinho C. (2015). The ecological performance of metallophyte plants thriving in geochemical islands explained by the Inclusive Niche Hypothesis". Journal of Plant Ecology 8 (1):41-50.

Harrison S, Cornell H, Moore KA (2010) Spatial niches and coexistence: testing theory with tarweeds. Ecology 91:2141–50.

and some model studies:

Kylafis, G. and M. Loreau (2011). "Niche construction in the light of niche theory." Ecol Lett 14(2): 82-90.

Vannette, R. and T. Fukami (2014). "Historical contingency in species interactions: towards niche-based predictions." Ecology Letters 17(1): 115-124.

There is no conceptual discrepancy in my question, there is historical vagueness in the term niche imo. But that is not the mill I wanted to tread .... So, thanks a lot for the suggestions, Péter & Maria Amélia!

I recommand you the paper of Liancourt et al. 2005 Ecology showing that plant species change their relation with neighbours depending on the position of the site relatively to their ecological niche

Richard

 Hi, I don't have anything to suggest but would like to follow this discussion. Sorry if there's a better, less intrusive way to do that...

Dear Devcharan, no problem, of course! But at the top right of this page there is a button "Follow this discussion".... :) 

Dear Dense,

Thanks, I see it now. Will use it from now on. 

Best,

Dev

For an early reference see attached.

Article Phytosociological Classification in Chorological Borderline Areas

Ha Hein, die ken ik! Sterker nog, het hele paper dat ik aan het schrijven ben draait om die publicatie...:D

Dear Rense, you can see attached file (in italian language).

With best regards.

Rosario Galesi

http://europa.uniroma3.it/cdlsfp/files/95ad45d7-33ed-46f3-9faf-4cd6a731515f.pdf

Hi Rense,

I'm attaching a recent article related to your question. It is a study case on factors affecting reproductive success of wild olive trees in peripheral populations.

Hope this helps!

Best,

I find this to be a fascinating subject. Anyone know if a similar discussion has been brought up more focused on terrestrial vertebrates as opposed to plants? I don't mean to derail the original poster's question.

Hi, here's a case study related to this topic

Thanks a lot again! Seems that more are interested in this topic....:)

In relation to plant species, the extreme edges of the ranges help form unique ecotypes, that over time form new species when they become isolated from the middle populations. 

I have attached an image from my study of one species of native California grass and show where the ecological extremes are creating new species at the edges of the main population from http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.three.html.  This publication also lists over 100 years of ecotype research papers in chronological order, and lists places where you might find new species forming at the fringes.

Wow, great stuff Craig!

The attached papers may be of interest.

Hello,

This may interest you.

http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/TTMpXRCcU2iF9KIh3UYb/full/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.110308.120317

One way to approach this issue, is to pick a perennial native grass species that has a wide range, like I picked Bromus carinatus for my ecotype study in 1991, and harvest seeds on a grid pattern--I used getting at least one seed sample population ever 25 miles in each direction.  

Then also gather along the edges ecologically, like coastal populations, the inland populations,, populations from extreme soil types, from the rainfall extremes for the species, upper and lower, and at elevational extremes-- lowest and highest.  I was copying what ecotypes researchers were doing from the 1880s to the 1940, like Claussen, Keck and Hiesey's work at Stanford on Achillea here in California.  

Then grow them in separate flats of potting soil in a common garden study.  like you can see at http://www.ecoseeds.com/common.html and then when they set seed you can see the genetically fixed ecotypic variations between the populations that way.  

The next step would be to write a paper and describe the differences, and if you get very enthusiastic, you can go as far as Edward Greene did when he sorted out the 100+ ecotypes of California poppies in 1905, and give them names and produce a taxonomic key to sort out those ecotypes.

Producing a taxonomic key and way of describing and naming these ecotypes, will begin the new chapter on plant studies, so that we can study these ecotypes in more uniform scientific  detail.  Right now, ecotypes are in the same position as all plant species were prior to 1735 when Linnaeus creating his binomial naming scheme.  We need exactly the same process to get started for describing and naming plant ecotypes in the future.  

The study in detail mof plant ecotypes will fill in a big missing piece of plant studies, where we can clearly see the important impact of environment on species, and easily be able to view evolution as it is happening in situ,

Thanks a lot again! This will take me weeks to work through! LOL

One other paper I forgot to include:

 Edward Greene's study of the California poppy ecotypes has been reprinted, and the most interesting part is that he created a taxonomic key to sort out the 116 ecotypes that he describes in detail.   If you go to Amazon and look for Pittonia Volume 5 1902-1905, the paperback reprint is under $30.  

And the simplicity of the perennial grasses and how quickly you can conduct a common garden study to view the fixed ecotypic variations, by using a common garden study is like putting on magic glasses, and be able to see evolution in progress.

see attached file please

I got a copy of Edward Greene's work on the California Poppy and it was an enormous amount of work because we hardly had any paved roads or cars in California in the 1880-1900 period, so he depended on people who were collecting plant specimens, and he wrote his study based on those specimens.  

A better method today, would to be sampling on a grid through the whole species' range, and collect from the environmental extremes, then plant them all thogether in a common garden, so that you can see what physical characters are genetically fixed, before you attempt making a taxonomic key for the various ecotypes. 

It is interesting to read in Greene's work, where he found the ecotypic extremes in the environment where he saw enough differences, that he named them as new species.  

He found the extremes in the coastal populations, the island populations both coastal and inland on island hill tops, the hill tops or mountain top populations, the desert populations, the sand dune populations, the rich soil valley floor populations, and the north and south extremes for the populations, as if they had to stretch their genes to fit along all of those extreme edges.  

You are right. Marginal populations can be expected to be prone to greater impacts of global changes than in other locations are expected to have a stronger effect on marginal populations. Particular insights can be obtained by looking at the edges of a species range, especially from species with wide distributions.  

I'm sending you one very nice paper form 1994.