Speciation in soda lake cichlids: ecological and genomic characterisation of reproductive barriers

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Speciation, the formation of new species, is fundamental to understanding thegeneration of biodiversity. Organisms that live in extreme environments makeexcellent candidates for investigating adaptation to a changing environment.The unprecedented stresses experienced by aquatic organisms in the lastdecades make it important to determine, from an evolutionary perspective, themechanisms enabling some species to survive and even speciate in naturallyoccurring adverse environments. Cichlid fishes are a model system for speciation and adaptive radiation research.In this project we focus on cichlid species that inhabit the small East Africansoda lakes Natron and Magadi. These lakes are characterised by extreme aquaticconditions of high pH (8.8-10.2), high salinity and high temperatures (30-430C).Yet surprisingly, four closely-related soda lake cichlids thrive in these waters.Geological evidence suggests that these species may have evolved over as shorta period of time as 10,000 years.This project offers the novel opportunity to characterise the barriers toreproduction that exist among the sympatric soda lake cichlid species. Thisproject offers high training value, combining behavioural experiments,laboratory work, high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics withopportunities for fieldwork in Africa for additional sample collection.