Abstract
The generation and maintenance of biodiversity are driven by population
divergence and speciation. We investigated divergence, gene flow, and
speciation in Beringia, a region at the top of the North Pacific Ocean
with a history of dramatic landscape alteration through Pleistocene
glacial cycles. These cycles repeatedly split and connected the Asian
and North American continents, separating and reconnecting avian
populations. Glacial refugia within Beringia also isolated some
populations for a time before potentially enabling them to reunite
during interglacial periods. Prior work suggests gene flow plays an
important role in the divergence of Beringian birds. To improve our
understanding of the generation of avian diversity in Beringia, we
tested models of demographic history in 11 lineages from five avian
orders (Anseriformes, Gaviiformes, Charadriiformes, Piciformes, and
Passeriformes) using population-, subspecies-, and species-level
pairwise comparisons. We sequenced an average of 3,710 ultraconserved
element (UCEs) loci from the nuclear genomes of these taxa to examine
genetic differentiation and test models of divergence through diffusion
analysis for demographic inference (δaδi). All of the inferred best-fit
models of divergence included gene flow. Together with prior work, this
corroborates that divergence with gene flow is the predominant mode of
divergence and speciation in Beringian birds.