DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Comparative Phylogeography of a Dynamic Archipelago

菲律宾群岛是研究多样化过程的一个自然模式系统。这些岛屿是世界上生物多样性最集中的地方之一，有着动态的、但人们很容易理解的地质历史。在过去的50万年里，菲律宾的几座岛屿因海平面的变化而反复相连和分离。研究人员将使用分布在这样一组岛屿上的六种物种（三种蜥蜴和三种青蛙）的分子数据和新的分析技术来测试关于最近气候变化和相关海平面变化如何影响这个动态系统的多样化的假设。这项研究将深入了解新物种形成的过程，并调查气候和海平面变化对生物多样性的影响。这些信息对于了解当前气候变化对全球生物多样性的长期影响至关重要。为这项研究开发的一种分析技术将代表一种重要的工具，以一种既具有生物学意义又具有统计学意义的方式划分物种，这将对基础研究和保护研究产生重要影响。

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.