CAREER: Comparative Vertebrate Phylogeography as a Tool for Reconstructing Environmental Change and Effect in Madagascar

9985205约德马达加斯加是地球上一些最稀有和濒危生物的家园。不幸的是，由于自然和人为引起的环境变化（如砍伐森林），许多这些独特的物种正面临灭绝的直接威胁。该职业发展计划将使用“比较系统地理学”方法探索马达加斯加脊椎动物的进化史，并将揭示马达加斯加近期景观进化史及其对本地脊椎动物的影响。研究结果对于理解自然气候变化对脊椎动物物种形成机制和扩散模式的影响以及人类对森林依赖类群遗传多样性的影响具有重要意义。除了揭示环境事件对脊椎动物进化的影响外，这项研究还有可能为地球上最具生态多样性和受威胁的环境之一的保护政策提供信息。这项研究是高度合作的，因为每个特定分类群的项目将与一个马达加斯加学生合作者的个人研究努力协调。这个系统的优势是双重的，它为马达加斯加科学家提供了研究培训，同时也为研究计划提供了前所未有的机会，可以从一系列珍稀和濒危的马达加斯加脊椎动物中获取生物样本。这项研究的一个基本优势是，它很自然地将研究与培训和教育结合起来。在本科阶段开设的保护遗传学新课程将进一步加强教育联系。本课程的目标有三个：1)传达对进化过程及其结果的理解，2)教育学生进化遗传学和系统发育技术的基础知识，以及它们在保护策略中的应用，3)面对现实世界中制定保护措施的困难。马达加斯加学生合作者将以学生和访问学者的身份参与课程。预计来自不同文化和经济背景的国际学生和美国学生的互动将对双方都有启示。

9985205 Yoder Madagascar is home to some of the most rare and endangered organisms on Earth. Unfortunately, many of these unique species are under immediate threat of extinction due to a combination of natural and human-induced alteration of the environment (e.g., deforestation). This career development plan will explore the evolutionary history of Malagasy vertebrates using "comparative phylogeographic" methods and will reveal aspects of the recent history of landscape evolution in Madagascar and its impact on the native vertebrates. The results will be significant for understanding the consequences of natural climate change for vertebrate speciation mechanisms and dispersal patterns and of human impact on genetic diversity of forest-dependent taxa. In addition to revealing the impact of environmental events on vertebrate evolution, the research has the potential to inform conservation policy for one of earth's most ecologically-diverse and threatened environments. The research is highly collaborative in that each taxon-specific project will be coordinated with the research efforts of an individual Malagasy-student collaborator. The advantages of this system are two-fold in that it offers research training to Malagasy scientists while also providing the research program with unprecedented access to biological samples from an array of rare and endangered Malagasy vertebrates. A fundamental strength of the research is that it so naturally integrates research with training and education. The educational link will be further enhanced via a new course in conservation genetics to be offered at the undergraduate level. The objectives of this course are threefold: 1) to convey an understanding of the evolutionary process and its outcome, 2) to educate students in the basics of evolutionary-genetic and phylogenetic techniques, and their applications for conservation strategy, and 3) to confront the difficult practicalities of instituting conservation measures in the real world. The Malagasy-student collaborators will participate in the course both as students and as visiting scholars. It is anticipated that the interaction of international and U. S. students from very different cultural and economic backgrounds will be a revealing experience for both.