A Tibetan Cradle of Evolution - in-situ speciation and Out-of-Tibet radiations in passerine model species

在我们的dfg资助的项目中，我们鉴定了两个雀形目鸟类分支，它们的起源和多样化中心位于青藏高原及其边缘。从这两个属中，我们选择了两个目标种对（终枝）进行后续研究。目标物种起源于更新世谱系分裂，包括沿QTP边缘和/或中亚和欧洲山地系统的至少四个不同的系统群（线粒体谱系）。因此，我们的模式物种提供了QTP上的原位物种形成和向西古北区连续扩散的完美例子。在我们的后续项目中，我们的目标是利用RAD测序和SNP分析分析欧亚育种范围内的种间和种内遗传多样性和系统地理模式。假设在QTP上具有广泛重叠繁殖范围的姐妹种经历了强烈的生态隔离（例如在山区的气候和海拔生态位），我们用物种分布模型（SDM）和生态位模型（ENM）来补充我们的遗传研究。在线资源提供的发生数据将接受质量检查，并由自己的基因型记录和鸟类标本数据补充。基于系统地理学分析的结果，我们将把分布范围细分为可诊断的种下单位，我们预计这些单位对应于不同的气候生态位（例如，QTP南部和东部边缘，不同的海拔带）。与中国和美国科学家合作，通过野外观测和卫星遥感相结合推断出栖息地地图，作为SDMs和ENMs的补充。我们的后续项目牢牢地嵌在DFG研究集群中。在联合跨学科框架内，一组生物学家（动物学家、植物学家、生态学家）和地球科学家/建模师将首次密切合作，探索如何将来自现有分类群的信息与来自过去环境的数据和模型相结合，以探索QTP地区及其他地区的生物进化。

In our DFG-funded project we identified two passerine bird clades with a center of origin and diversification on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and along its margins. From these two genera, we choose two target species pairs (terminal clades) for a follow-up study. Target species originated from Pleistocene lineage splits and comprise at least four different phylogroups (mitochondrial lineages) along the QTP margins and/ or in Central Asian and European mountain systems. Therefore our model species provide perfect examples of in-situ speciation on the QTP and successive dispersal to the Western Palearctic. In our follow-up project we aim at analyzing inter- and intraspecific genetic diversification and phylogeographic patters across Eurasian breeding ranges using RAD sequencing and SNP analysis. Assuming that sister species with widely overlapping breeding ranges on the QTP have undergone strong ecological segregation (e.g. in mountains with respect to the climatic and the elevational niche) we complement our genetic study with species distribution modeling (SDM) and ecological niche modeling (ENM). Occurrence data yet available from online resources will be subject to a quality check and complemented by own genotyped records and specimen data from bird collections. Based on the results from phylogeographic analysis we will subdivide distribution ranges into diagnosable infraspecific units that we expect to correspond with different climatic niches (e.g. southern and eastern QTP margins, different elevational zones). SDMs and ENMs will be complemented by habitat mapping inferred from a combination of field observation and satellite remote sensing in co-operation with Chinese and US American scientists. Our follow-up project is firmly embedded in a DFG research cluster. Within the joint interdisciplinary framework a group of biologists (zoologists, botanists, ecologists) and geoscientists/modellers for the first time will work very closely together to explore how to combine information derived from extant taxa with data and models from past environments with the goal to explore organismic evolution in the QTP region and beyond.