Comparative Phylogeography of Small Mammals in Montane Africa: Integrating Climatic History and Genetic Variation

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This project investigates how climatic fluctuations over the Plio-Pleistocene have affected the geographical distribution, demographic history and genetic structure of five species of co-distributed Eastern Afromontane small mammals in the Albertine and Kenyan Rifts. In African montane forests, the expansion and contraction of habitats may have played an important role in shaping the diversity of mammalian communities where centers of taxonomic and genetic diversity are predicted to be coincident with areas that acted as persistent forest refugia during glacial maxima. My study jointly utilizes species distribution models and multi-locus molecular genetic data to investigate how geographic and climatic processes have driven these evolutionary and ecological processes. Questions to be addressed include whether and by what forces taxa are continuing to diverge and how historical scenarios shaped current patterns of lineage and genetic diversity. This research uses next-generation sequencing to generate large numbers of loci that will allow fine-scale inference of population genetic patterns and more precise inferences regarding demographic history. Results from this work can be used to assess the conservation and evolutionary significance of African montane mammal species in an imperiled global biodiversity hotspot and delineate sub-regions that harbor historically persistent lineages. Collaboration with Kenyan researchers will enhance professional credentials of developing African scientists as well as contribute to taxonomic descriptions of new species being uncovered in this project. This study will also provide undergraduates an introduction to new approaches in molecular biological research, including phylogenomic analysis, that are applicable to diverse sets of biological and biomedical fields.