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Stability, the continuity of environments or habitats through space and time, is a widely used concept in macroecology and biogeography and is often invoked in studies attempting to explain the uneven spatial distribution of biodiversity. Stability can be measured in various ways and at various spatiotemporal scales; however, few studies explicitly define their use of the term. This makes interpreting and comparing studies difficult. We suggest an integrated approach to defining measures of stability in macroecology and biogeography. This approach addresses five key challenges concerning the biological, environmental and spatiotemporal scales at which stability is assessed, and how the complexity of change across time and space is summarised into a metric of stability. Using this approach allows for clarity around the choice, conceptualisation, communication and comparison of measures of stability.

Increased sampling of genomes and populations across closely related species has revealed that levels of genetic exchange during and after speciation are higher than previously thought. One obvious manifestation of such exchange is strong cytonuclear discordance, where the divergence in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) differs from that for nuclear genes more (or less) than expected from differences between mtDNA and nuclear DNA (nDNA) in population size and mutation rate. Given genome-scale data sets and coalescent modeling, we can now confidently identify cases of strong discordance and test specifically for historical or recent introgression as the cause. Using population sampling, combining exon capture data from historical museum specimens and recently collected tissues we showcase how genomic tools can resolve complex evolutionary histories in the brachyotis group of rock-wallabies (Petrogale). In particular, applying population and phylogenomic approaches we can assess the role of demographic processes in driving complex evolutionary patterns and assess a role of ancient introgression and hybridization. We find that described species are well supported as monophyletic taxa for nDNA genes, but not for mtDNA, with cytonuclear discordance involving at least 4 operational taxonomic units across 4 species which diverged 183–278 kya. ABC modeling of nDNA gene trees supports introgression during or after speciation for some taxon pairs with cytonuclear discordance. Given substantial differences in body size between the species involved, this evidence for gene flow is surprising. Heterogenous patterns of introgression were identified but do not appear to be associated with chromosome differences between species. These and previous results suggest that dynamic past climates across the monsoonal tropics could have promoted reticulation among related species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoring degraded landscapes has primarily focused on re‐establishing native plant communities. However, little is known with respect to the diversity and distribution of most key revegetation species or the environmental and anthropogenic factors that may affect their demography and genetic structure. In this study, we investigated the genetic structure of two widespread Australian legume species (Acacia salicina and Acacia stenophylla) in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), a large agriculturally utilized region in Australia, and assessed the impact of landscape structure on genetic differentiation. We used AFLP genetic data and sampled a total of 28 A. salicina and 30 A. stenophylla sampling locations across southeastern Australia. We specifically evaluated the importance of four landscape features: forest cover, land cover, water stream cover, and elevation. We found that both species had high genetic diversity (mean percentage of polymorphic loci, 55.1% for A. salicina versus. 64.3% for A. stenophylla) and differentiation among local sampling locations (A. salicina: ΦPT = 0.301, 30%; A. stenophylla: ΦPT = 0.235, 23%). Population structure analysis showed that both species had high levels of structure (6 clusters each) and admixture in some sampling locations, particularly A. stenophylla. Although both species have a similar geographic range, the drivers of genetic connectivity for each species were very different. Genetic variation in A. salicina seems to be mainly driven by geographic distance, while for A. stenophylla, land cover appears to be the most important factor. This suggests that for the latter species, gene flow among populations is affected by habitat fragmentation. We conclude that these largely co‐occurring species require different management actions to maintain population connectivity. We recommend active management of A. stenophylla in the MDB to improve gene flow in the adversity of increasing disturbances (e.g., droughts) driven by climate change and anthropogenic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]