理解物种地理分布格局是生物地理学、进化生物学和保护生物学研究的关键核心之一。由于在空间生态学中必须考虑研究所涉及的尺度，从而选择合适的空间尺度是一个极为重要且经常发生的主题。
中科院成都生物所系统进化与保育学科组胡军华博士与动物所蒋志刚研究员领导的研究团队针对中亚地区特有的有蹄类——原羚属(Procapra，包括普氏原羚P. przewalskii、藏原羚P. picticaudata和蒙原羚P. gutturosa 3种羚羊)物种，在不同的空间范围尺度上探讨了物种间的同域分布区，并在此基础上揭示了它们的生态位分化格局，发现原羚属物种间的生态位重叠与地理距离密切相关而并非物种间的系统发育距离。该研究提供了近缘物种在大空间尺度上存在生态位分化的证据，并支持了生态物种形成在谱系产生中起着重要作用的假说。
该研究结果近期发表于国际主流学术期刊Naturwissenschaften (The Science of Nature). Junhua Hu & Zhigang Jiang. 2012. Detecting the potential sympatric range and niche divergence between Asian endemic ungulates of Procapra. DOI: 10.1007/s00114-012-0933-1。此项研究受中国科学院知识创新工程领域前沿项目(Y1B302100)、国家自然科学基金（31070469）及中国科学院重要方向性项目（KSCX2-EW-Z-4; KSCX2-EW-J-22）等项目的资助。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1007/s00114-012-0933-1
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Detecting the potential sympatric range and niche divergence between Asian endemic ungulates of Procapra
Junhua Hu and Zhigang Jiang
Species distribution modeling (SDM) is increasingly used to reveal biogeographical relationships, for example the sympatric range for species coexistence, and fundamental questions about niche evolution between related species. We explored the sympatric ranges between three Procapra species (Procapra przewalskii, Procapra Picticaudata, and Procapra gutturosa) via two methods of defining the study region (method 1, in which models were developed in a larger region including the whole geographic range of Procapra, and method 2 in which a smaller region surrounding focal species’ localities was used and then projected to the larger region). We also quantified environmental niche divergence between gazelles across the whole range in Procapra. Models for gazelles generally performed well. Compared with method 2, method 1 led to larger predicted areas with high suitability and was less concentrated around known localities. Clamping, which deals with variables outside the training range, varied between gazelles and occurred primarily in regions unsuitable for respective species. For all gazelle pairs, models revealed an overlap zone where more than one species should occur, while the estimates varied between the two methods. Moreover, we found that the niche overlap was closely associated with geographic distance but not with phylogenetic distance among gazelles. Our findings indicate that SDM is a useful tool for testing whether related species tend to be in sympatry at large scales, with method 1 leading to more realistic predictions for Procapra. This study provides evidence of a distinct niche divergence among related species and supports the theory that ecological speciation plays a significant role in lineage generation.
