Testing the ecophylogenetic hypothesis with species and spaces along ecological gradients

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SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL Most terrestrial animals are arthropods, most of these are insects and most of these are unknown to science. In recent years we have learned that many of the unnamed insect species are physically smaller and more regionally-restricted and/or host-specific than had been imagined. Inter- and intra-specific regional specialisations such as these (in particular those that co-vary with elevation and anthropogenic disturbance) are critical to our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of that biodiversity. Biodiversity is a combination of the evolutionary history and ecological dramas that combine to select the “actors” in the ecological “theater”. However, biodiversity is more than species richness. Biodiversity is a complex product of the interaction of evolutionary and ecological processes and so phylogenies are a useful tool to help understand the assembly and maintenance of communities. In my research program, we utilise multiple arthropod taxa (Collembola, Araneae, Diptera, parasitoid Hymenoptera, Isopoda and Coleoptera), but always amongst the first to be considered are the ants (Formicidae). The work is based in the Area de Conservacin Guanacaste (ACG) where than 2.6 % of global diversity is thought to reside. Our expertise within this national park permits us to test the assumptions of ecophylogenetic hypotheses in hyperdiverse Neotropical arthropods. Arthropods are sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture and this is accentuated in the Neotropics where many species may already live close to their thermal limits, and most are not named. Scientific names provide a systematic understanding of a species and a framework to predict the functional elements of that species Thus, lacking scientific names critically impedes conducting predictive and process-oriented biodiversity science. This DG describes projects for 2 PhD and 3 MSc students. We will document the species that live in this hyperdiverse area, DNA barcode and measure the phylogenetic diversity and calculate functional diversity by including data on ecology, life history traits and morphology complement of morphological variables linked to species survival in particular abiotic conditions. Our work will create and synthesise the biodiversity data required to test the “ecophylogenetics hypothesis” which has previously been criticised for not being evaluated on a sufficient number of taxa nor situations. This work will allow us to better understand how these communities respond to hotter and drier conditions corresponding to forestry and warming cloud forests. In my lab group, we measure insect diversity to answer the question of how communities are assembled along gradients of elevation and disturbance. By incorporating both phylogenetic and functional measures of that diversity we will be better able to answer how species track changing abiotic conditions.