Dissertation Research: Estimating gene flow directionality and shared biogeographic histories of Western Atlantic Syngnathidae

西大西洋是一个生物多样性的海洋环境，在那里，强大的洋流可以在海洋生物的形成和持久性方面发挥重要作用。该项目的目的是调查主要的海流力量以及气候和地理过程如何促进西大西洋的海马科鱼类(海马科)的多样化。大多数物种有可能通过漂流在漂浮的植被上被动分散，这一生物学特征非常适合研究洋流对种群连通性的长期和当代影响。研究人员将重建DNA谱系，并整合基于地理信息系统的环境数据，以估计当代和历史上的物种分布，同时检查基因流动和气候历史对这些共同分布的类群的影响。通过使用下一代DNA测序方法的最新进展，关于是什么驱动这一鱼类群体的多样化的问题将被解决。这将有助于更好地理解生态和进化过程是如何形成今天的S群科的，并提供对西大西洋鱼类扩散潜力的进一步洞察。对种群之间的基因流动方向性和人口历史的快速推断可能被证明是传统生态调查的一种具有成本效益的替代方案，并被证明在估计种群连通性以用于海洋保护区的放置和管理方面是有用的。这项研究收集的信息将作为网站的基础，该网站旨在实施和解释保护管理的基因流动推断。此外，这些目标的追求将包括对纽约皇后学院的本科生进行分子生态学和进化研究的培训。

The western Atlantic is a biologically diverse marine environment where powerful ocean currents can play a significant role in the formation and persistence of marine species. The aim of this project is to investigate how major current forces as well as climatic and geographic processes have contributed to the diversification of western Atlantic seahorses and pipefishes (Syngnathidae). Most species of Synganthidae have the potential to disperse passively by rafting on floating vegetation, a biological trait well suited for studying the long-term and contemporary effects of ocean currents on population connectivity. The investigators will reconstruct DNA genealogies and integrate GIS-based environmental data to estimate contemporary and historical species distributions while examining the impact that gene flow and climatic history have had on these co-distributed taxa. By using recent advances in next-generation DNA sequencing methods, questions regarding what drives diversification in this group of fishes will be addressed. This will contribute to a better understanding of how ecological and evolutionary processes shape today?s Syngnathidae populations and provide further insight into the dispersal potential of fish in the western Atlantic.Robust inference of gene flow directionality and demographic history among populations may prove a cost effective alternative to traditional ecological surveys and prove useful in the estimation of population connectivity for marine reserve placement and management. The information gathered in this research will serve as the basis for a website aimed at implementing and interpreting gene flow inference for conservation management. In addition, the pursuit of these objectives will include the training of undergraduate students from Queens College, New York, in molecular ecology and evolution research.