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

近一个世纪以来，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。为许多温带生物群体开发了气候驱动的地理物种形成模型，并为北美鸟类开发了特别详细和明确的物种形成模型。在过去的十年里，北美鸟类的这种模式已经成为争论的主题，因此，对于温带鸟类如何受到过去环境变化事件的影响的全面理解仍然难以捉摸。该项目将直接测试这一范例，并将极大地扩展对松林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来研究北美鸟类多样化的时间和空间模式与过去的环境变化有关，并将产生松树和橡树林地鸟类的多地点比较系统地理学。该项目为本科生和研究生提供了重要的指导和研究机会，包括许多来自代表性不足群体的学生，并为这些学生提供了在一所小型农村大学和两所大型城市研究型大学之间的多机构和多学科研究工作中工作的独特机会。该项目还将支持为南达科他州西部农村和保留地社区的高中教师举办讲习班，并向他们提供知识和资源，以便在课堂上讲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.