DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Comparative Phylogeography of a Dynamic Archipelago

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The Philippine Archipelago represents a natural model system for the study of the processes of diversification. The islands harbor one of the greatest concentrations of biodiversity in the world and have a dynamic, yet well-understood, geological history. During the last 500,000 years, sets of islands in the Philippines have been repeatedly connected and isolated by changing sea levels. The researchers will use molecular data from populations of six species (three lizards and three frogs) co-distributed across one such set of islands and novel analytical techniques to test hypotheses about how recent climate change and associated sea-level change has influenced diversification in this dynamic system.This research will yield insights into the processes responsible for the formation of new species, and investigate the effect of climate and sea-level change on biodiversity. This information is vitally important for understanding the long-term effects that current climate change will have on global biodiversity. One of the analytical techniques developed for this research will represent an important tool for delimiting species in a way that is both biologically and statistically meaningful, which will have important implications for both basic and conservation research.