Dissertation Research: Did predation Drive Micro- and Macroevolutionary Diversification in Mosquitofish?

这个项目将检验这样一个假设，即捕食者制度之间的不同自然选择已经推动了物种内种群之间(微观进化)和属内物种之间(宏观进化)之间的适应性差异。利用生物力学方法，这项研究将测试不同捕食者制度下的自然选择如何有利于有生命的蚊属鱼类不同的身体形态和游动能力的预测。该项目将使用比较分析来评估与低捕食性和高捕食性环境的殖民有关的体型、长时间游泳能力和快速启动游泳能力的进化变化。这项研究将进一步研究性状差异的遗传基础，并测试物种内部和物种之间形态-表现关系的生物力学预测(揭示身体形态和游泳之间的因果关系)。这项研究的方法论方法应该揭示自然选择和随机遗传漂移在微观和宏观进化尺度上的特征进化中的相对重要性。该研究定量地考察了进化生物学中的一个基本问题--驱动微观进化分歧的过程是否能够解释宏观进化模式。这项工作应该对适应性进化的研究做出重要贡献，特别是捕食在进化多样性中的作用，以及生物力学方法在理解适应性分化的功能基础方面的作用。该项目将进一步帮助培训几名学生进行实验室和实地研究，并向科学界以及更广泛的公众广泛传播。

This project will test the hypothesis that divergent natural selection between predator regimes has driven adaptive divergence between populations within a species (microevolution) and between species within a genus (macroevolution). Using a biomechanical approach, the study will test predictions of how natural selection in different predator regimes should favor different body forms and swimming capabilities in livebearing fish of the genus Gambusia (mosquitofishes). The project will use comparative analyses to assess evolutionary changes in body shape, prolonged swimming performance, and fast-start swimming performance associated with colonization of low- and high-predation environments. The study will further examine the genetic basis of trait differences, and test biomechanical predictions of morphology-performance relationships within and between species (revealing the causal connections between body form and swimming). The methodological approach of the study should reveal the relative importance of natural selection and random genetic drift in the evolution of traits at the micro- and macroevolutionary scales.The study quantitatively examines a fundamental question in evolutionary biology-whether processes driving microevolutionary divergence can explain macroevolutionary patterns. The work should provide an important contribution to the study of adaptive evolution, particularly the role of predation in evolutionary diversification and the utility of a biomechanical approach in understanding the functional basis of adaptive divergence. The project will further help train several students in both laboratory- and field-based research, and be widely disseminated to the scientific community, as well as the broader public.