Phylogeography

Phylogeography studies how genetic lineages are distributed across geographic space and time. It links patterns of genetic variation to historical processes such as migration, isolation, and population change.

Gene tree: A branching diagram that represents the ancestry of sampled genetic sequences. Gene trees reveal the lineage relationships whose geographic distribution phylogeography reconstructs.
Population genetics: The study of genetic variation within and among populations and how it changes over time. Phylogeography applies population-level genetic variation to historical geographic questions.
Phylogeographic break: A geographic boundary across which populations show a sharp change in genetic lineage or variation. Such breaks can identify barriers or historical divisions that shaped lineages.
Phylogeography versus phylogenetics: A comparison between geographic reconstruction of genetic lineages and inference of evolutionary relationships. Phylogeography asks where lineages occurred; phylogenetics alone need not model geographic history.
Landscape genetics: The study of how landscape features and ecological processes shape genetic variation and connectivity. It emphasizes contemporary landscape effects that historical phylogeographic explanations must separate.
Coalescent theory: A mathematical framework describing how sampled gene copies trace back to common ancestors. It connects observed genetic variation to ancestral population histories and times.
Phylogenetics: The study of evolutionary relationships among organisms, genes, or other biological entities. Its methods reconstruct the lineage trees that phylogeographic interpretation uses.
Glacial refugium: An area where populations persisted during an unfavorable glacial climate. Genetic diversity and lineage locations can reveal refugia and subsequent recolonization routes.
Species distribution modeling: Methods that estimate where species can occur from environmental and occurrence data. These models infer suitable ranges, whereas phylogeography uses genetic ancestry to reconstruct past distributions.
Approximate Bayesian computation: A statistical approach that compares models using simulated data when likelihoods are difficult to calculate. It allows competing demographic and geographic histories to be assessed from genetic summaries.

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