The role of behaviour in the adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes from Lake Tanganyika.

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The unravelling of the complex process of speciation and the identification of factors that determine species diversity remains one of the most important and challenging endeavors in biology. To study groups of organisms that are characterized by an exceptionally high species-richness could be key to the understanding of how organismal diversity is generated and maintained. The cichlid fishes in the African Great Lakes, which are in the focus of this proposal, represent the largest vertebrate adaptive radiations known today, with hundreds of endemic species having evolved with unparalleled high speciation rates. The aim of the proposed project is to investigate the role of inter-specific variation in basic behavioural patterns in the context of the massive adaptive radiation of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika. More specifically, I intend to assess consistent behavioural traits, with a particular focus on the exploration tendency, of a large number of cichlid species (comprising species-rich and species-poor lineages) and to integrate this behavioural data with available whole-genome and brain transcriptome sequences as well as with existing eco-morphological information of the respective species. This thorough approach builds up on the host lab’s expertise with the study system and the resources that have been established there as well as on my own experience in the study of consistent behavioural traits in freshwater fishes. This project will provide first in-depth insights into how behaviour contributes to the species’ propensity to diversify.