DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Riverscape genetics: testing the role of river properties with population-genetic models in Neotropical freshwater fishes

遗传数据可以为研究构成和驱动种群差异的因素提供一个窗口。在这项研究中，我们将使用这些数据来揭示当前和过去的景观特征如何决定人口结构。然而，如果没有方法来预测这种情况下的遗传特征，这样的推断是具有挑战性的。拟议的工作将是解决这一知识差距的一步，它将应用于淡水鱼类生物多样性热点——巴西的大西洋沿岸雨林。拟议的工作将提供关于这一特定生态系统中淡水鱼的关键知识，并广泛适用于世界其他地区的河流环境。该项目提供了对河流特性的深入了解，这些特性对保护工作至关重要，因为它们影响着河流中生物的种群持久性和运动模式。这些pi还将在这个项目上与巴西学生合作，促进国际科学参与。这项研究将使用计算机模拟来产生预期的遗传变异模式，以便识别特定河流特性（例如，河流段的长度，连接支流的数量和流动状态）对地方性四环鱼运动模式的影响。这种机制的理解将有助于解释过去的研究，这些研究记录了不同地区之间遗传变异的差异。这里开发的测试将允许对先前的研究进行重新评估，以确定构建生物多样性的过程在不同地区之间可能不同。因此，这项工作将提供一个通用的工具，可以促进我们对产生生物多样性模式的过程的理解。

Genetic data can provide a window in the factors that structure and drive divergence among populations. In this study, we will use such data to reveal how current and past landscapes features determine population structure. Such inferences, however, are challenging without methodologies to predict the genetic signature under such conditions. The proposed work will be a step towards addressing this knowledge gap with an application to a freshwater fish biodiversity hotspot, the Atlantic Coastal Rainforest of Brazil. The proposed work will provide critical knowledge about freshwater fishes in this particular ecosystem, as well as be broadly applicable to riverine environments in other world regions. The project provide insights into the properties of rivers that make them critical to conservation efforts because of their impact in population persistence and movement patterns of organisms living in the rivers. The PIs will also collaborate with Brazilian students on this project, promoting international scientific engagement. This research will use computer simulations to generate expected patterns of genetic variation so the impact of specific river properties (e.g., the length of river segments, the number of connecting tributaries, and the flow regime) on movement patterns of an endemic tetra can be discerned. Such a mechanistic understanding will be instrumental to interpreting past studies that have documented differences in genetic variation between different regions. The tests developed here will allow re-evaluation of those prior studies to determine what processes structuring biodiversity might differ among regions. As such, the work will provide a general tool that can advance our understanding of the processes generating biodiversity patterns.