Evolutionary rate simulation
Our simple simulation, based on generating datasets with a trueσ 2 value of 0, demonstrated that our new,
bin-based approach to characterizing species’ known fundamental niches
for comparative phylogenetic analysis led to evolutionary rate estimates
closer to the true rate than traditional character coding methods (Fig.
2). The differences between the two character coding methods were
consistent as the number of taxa increased. These patterns were
consistent between the cool and warm niche simulations. We do not
advocate bin-based coding over traditional coding methods when the goal
is to estimate rates of niche evolution quantitatively across a
phylogeny. However, these initial results illustrate a potential source
of error when attempting comparative phylogenetic analysis using
traditional coding methods—traditional coding is often reliant on the
frequency of environmental barriers within realized niche space, instead
of focusing on the range of suitable niche values.