Dissertation Research: Sources of Neotropical Bat Diversity: Have Cave-Rich Areas Been Centers of Cave-Bat Speciation?

面对迫在眉睫的全球生物多样性危机，了解生物多样性起源和维持的自然过程是实现保护地球遗传库和生态稳定目标的关键一步。拉丁美洲是地球上生物物种最集中的地区，也是栖息地破坏率最高的地区之一。在拉丁美洲，旨在确定生物多样性起源的研究已经开展了广泛的研究，但对这些研究的解释仍然存在争议。“更新世避难所假说”是历史上最有力的假说之一，它认为高降雨量地区是生物物种进化和保存的中心，但最近受到了大量古生态数据的挑战。因此，当前以湿润地区为重点的生物多样性保护策略的有效性受到了质疑。这个项目将检验另一种假设，即地质高度复杂的地区是物种起源的重要中心，至少在哺乳动物的情况下是这样。该研究将使用漏斗耳蝙蝠家族（Natalidae）作为模型组，因为这些动物是新世界热带地区分布最广的哺乳动物群体之一，它们的生存依赖于地貌表面特征（洞穴、裂缝）。对Natalidae进化历史（系统发育）的有力重建将测试这个蝙蝠家族的进化是否与新世界热带地区洞穴的历史可用性和分布有关，从而有可能测试地表地质高度复杂的地区是否作为这些蝙蝠的物种形成中心。系统发育将通过比较美国和拉丁美洲博物馆收藏的natalids物种的形态和遗传特征来推断。这个项目将是第一个测试洞穴地区是否已经成为新世界蝙蝠物种形成的中心，从而代表了热带美洲物种多样性的潜在重要来源。如果这一假设得到我们的研究结果的支持，这项研究将对未来保护策略的设计产生重大影响，旨在保护拉丁美洲生物进化中心，作为地球遗传财富的重要储存库。这项研究还将对洞穴生物地理学的理解产生更广泛的影响，不仅在热带美洲，而且在世界上其他洞穴和洞穴动物丰富的地区。在地方范围内，它将发现地理上受限制的可能有灭绝危险的漏斗耳蝙蝠物种，并将促进它们的保护，特别是那些分布在重要经济地区和对农业害虫提供关键自然控制的物种。

In the face of an impending global biodiversity crisis, understanding the natural processes involved in the origin and maintenance of biological diversity is a crucial step toward the goal of preserving the genetic reservoirs and ecological stability of the planet. In Latin America, a region that combines the richest concentration of biological species and one of the highest rates of habitat destruction on earth, research aimed to identifying the origins of diversity has been extensive but the explanations have remained controversial. One the most historically powerful hypothesis, the "Pleistocene refugia hypothesis", which maintains that regions of high rainfall have functioned as centers of evolution and preservation of biological species, has been recently challenged by abundant paleoecological data. Therefore, the effectiveness of current conservation strategies with a focus on wet areas for the preservation of biodiversity has been cast into doubt. This project will t est the alternative hypothesis that regions of high geologic complexity have been important centers for the origin of species, at least in the case of mammals. The study will use the funnel-eared bat family (Natalidae) as a model group, given that these animals are among the most widespread mammal groups in the new world tropics that depend on geomorphologic surface features (caves, crevices) for their survival. A robust reconstruction of the evolutionary history (phylogeny) of Natalidae will test whether the evolution of this bat family has been tied to the historical availability and distribution of caves in the new world tropics, making possible, in turn, to test whether areas of high complexity in surface geology have functioned as centers of speciation for these bats. The phylogeny will be inferred by comparing morphological and genetic traits of species of natalids deposited in museum collections in the US and Latin America.This project will be the first to test whether cave regions have functioned as centers of bat speciation in the New World, thus representing potentially important sources of species diversity in tropical America. If this hypothesis is supported by our findings, this study will have a significant impact in the design of future conservation strategies aimed to protect centers of biological evolution in Latin America, as important repositories of the genetic wealth of the planet. The study will also have a broader impact in the understanding of cave biogeography in general, not only in tropical America but also in other regions of the world rich in caves and cave fauna. At a local scale, it will detect geographically restricted species of funnel-eared bats that may risk extinction and will promote their conservation, particularly of those that range into economically important areas and provide crucial natural control to agricultural pests.