Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY 2000

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for 2000.The research and training plan is in the area of Animal Behavior and is entitled "Signal Evolution and Speciation in the Common Paradise Kingfisher Complex". The means by which changes in mating signals lead to the formation of new species remain an unresolved issue in biology. The proposed research addresses this question via study of populations of the paradise kingfisher (T.galatea). These populations exhibit different plumage traits and may represent early stages of speciation. Using Geographic Information System, molecular genetics, and spectrographs, this study will determine how differences in environmental conditions, through induction of changes in plumage traits between populations, leads to reproductive isolation of a given population and, in turn, speciation.