Conclusions
Assessing changes in quantity and quality of available habitats allows
the generation of more detailed interpretations of population dynamics
in response to past climate changes, and predictions of future changes
in climatic conditions. SDMs are useful to infer changes in distribution
of organisms, and here we show how niche marginality can be used as a
proxy to predict species’ abundance and selection pressure. Results
showed that species on the Baja California peninsula responded to
changes in climatic conditions based on their ecological niche
characteristics. Some highland clades were favored during LGM climatic
conditions, since besides a decrease in the area of suitable conditions
they may have presented increased fitness within those available
habitats due to those habitats having lower niche marginality. This
demonstrates the decoupling between habitat quality and quantity
relevant to the evolution of populations. On the other hand, lowland
desert clades seem to have better habitat conditions under present
climates in terms of habitat quantity and quality. Overall, we were able
to generate explicit predictions about population history that can be
tested with genomic data to generate a better understanding of
population dynamics driven by climatic changes in habitat quantity and
quality.