Collaborative Research: Multilocus Comparative Phylogeography of Pine-Oak Woodland Birds in North America

近世纪来，生物学家一直在争论过去的气候变化是否促进了温带生物的物种形成。 气候驱动的地理物种形成模型被开发用于许多温带生物群，并且为北美鸟类开发了一个特别详细和明确的物种形成模型。在过去的十年中，这种北美鸟类的范例已经成为争论的话题，因此对过去环境变化事件如何影响温带鸟类的全面了解仍然难以捉摸。该项目将直接测试范式，并将大大扩展对松树和橡树林地动物群历史的理解。这项工作将使用最先进的分子技术和分析，以研究与过去的环境变化有关的北美鸟类多样化的时间和空间模式，并将产生一个多位点的松树和橡树林地鸟类的比较生态地理学。该项目为本科生和研究生提供了重要的指导和研究机会，包括来自代表性不足群体的许多学生，并为这些学生提供了一个独特的机会，在一所小型农村大学和两所大型城市研究型大学之间进行多机构和多学科的研究工作。该项目还将支持为来自南达科他州西部农村和保留地社区的高中教师举办研讨会，并为他们提供知识和资源，以便在课堂上教授气候变化及其对生物多样性的影响。

For nearly a century, biologists have debated whether past climate change promoted speciation in temperate zone organisms. Models of climate-driven geographic speciation were developed for many groups of temperate organisms, and a particularly detailed and explicit speciation model was developed for North American birds. Over the last decade, this paradigm for North American birds has become the topic of debate, and so a comprehensive understanding of how temperate zone birds were impacted by past environmental change events remains elusive. This project will directly test the paradigm and will significantly extend understanding of the history of the fauna of pine and oak woodlands. The work will use state-of-the-art molecular techniques and analyses to examine the temporal and spatial patterns of diversification of North American birds in relation to past environmental change and will produce a multi-locus comparative phylogeography of pine and oak woodland birds. The project provides significant mentoring and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, including many students from underrepresented groups, and gives these students a unique opportunity to work in a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary research effort between a small rural university and two large urban research universities. The project also will support a workshop for high school teachers from the rural and reservation communities of western South Dakota and provide them the knowledge and resources to teach about climate change and its impact on biotic diversity in their classrooms.