The maturation of marine phylogeography depends on integration of comparative information across different regions globally. The northwestern Pacific, characterized by unique tectonic setting, however, is still underrepresented. This study seeks to highlight its phylogeographical history based on available population data, focusing on three seas: the East China Sea (ECS), the South China Sea (SCS), and the Sea of Japan (SOJ). We first conducted a literature survey to evaluate current research efforts, and then re-analysed the...

Delimiting species and clarifying phylogenetic relationships are the main goals of systematics. For species with questionable taxonomic status, species delimitation approaches using multi-species coalescent models with multiple loci are recommended if morphological data are unavailable or unhelpful. Moreover, these methods will also reduce subjectivity based on genetic distance or requirement of monophyletic genetic lineages. We determine the validity and phylogenetic position of a rare and long controversial species of Chinese reptile, the Szechwan ratsnake (Euprepiophis...

Habitat fragmentation due to both natural and anthropogenic forces continues to threaten the evolution and maintenance of biological diversity. This is of particular concern in tropical regions that are experiencing elevated rates of habitat loss. Although less well-studied than tropical rain forests, tropical dry forests (TDF) contain an enormous diversity of species and continue to be threatened by anthropogenic activities including grazing and agriculture. However, little is known about the processes that shape genetic connectivity...

The value of local ecological knowledge (LEK) to conservation is increasingly recognised, but LEK is being rapidly lost as indigenous livelihoods change. Biodiversity loss is also a driver of the loss of LEK, but quantitative study is lacking. In our study landscape in SW China, a large proportion of species have been extirpated. Hence, we were interested to understand whether species extirpation might have led to an erosion of LEK and the implications this might...

DatasetsThis .zip files contains two folders. The folder "Control" contains the 15 raw 454 sequence files generated from the "Test Pools" analysis detailed in Table 2 of the manuscript, and a file of 27 Sanger sequences listed in Table S1. The folder "Tenerife" contains the 6 raw 454 sequence files associated generated from the "Tenerife Forest Samples" analysis detailed in Table 3 of the manuscript.