Molecular phylogeny and speciation in a regional fauna

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The goals of my research program are to: (i) document the patterns of evolutionary divergence within andamong natural populations, (ii) test hypotheses concerning the origins of biodiversity from unique populationsto species, and (iii) apply such understanding to the conservation of biodiversity. The models used to addressthese key questions in evolutionary biology are fishes of northwestern North America, including: evolutionarylineages that were isolated in distinct glacial refugia (sticklebacks, trout, and char); populations that showvarious degrees of physical separation via physical landform (e.g., migration barriers, watershedinterconnectedness in trout, char, and grayling) or ecology (adaptation to distinct habitats in trout andsticklebacks); and species of closely related fishes that have come into contact (char and sticklebacks)postglacially. The novel aspects of this research program include: integration of historical and contemporaryprocesses in divergence, comparative analyses of these processes in old (e.g., char) and more recent (e.g.,sticklebacks) divergences, and the integration of molecular and ecological methods in hypothesis testing. Forinstance, molecular phylogenetic, population genetic, and ecological methods have all been integrated into thestudy of the historical factors that were involved in the formation of a contact zone between two char, DollyVarden and bull trout, in northwestern North America, and the processes that determine the current geneticstructure of the contact zone. The significance of this work, and related work on sticklebacks, includesunderstanding the processes (such as the interactions among natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow)that influence genetic variation within and between populations, and the ecological and genetic processes thatpromote the evolution of new species. Most generally, all of these impacts are highly relevant to helping tounderstand the origins of biodiversity - a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology as well as a necessarypre-requisite to the conservation of biodiversity. Our work is also important for the training of young scientistsin areas of great need for Canada - aquatic and molecular ecology and biodiversity research.