Starter Grant: A Phylogenetic Study of the Evolution of Migration in Orioles

陆地迁徙行为是鸟类生物学中最引人入胜的方面之一，但关于迁徙和非迁徙物种不同的鸟类属和科的迁徙进化，人们几乎没有确切的了解。凯文·奥姆兰博士正在研究黄莺属的这个问题，重点研究了三对密切相关的物种，每对物种都有迁徙和非迁徙的代表。分子DNA数据将从美国和墨西哥的种群中采集大量个体样本；墨西哥的实地工作已经在墨西哥城国立大学鸟类学家的协助下完成。这些数据将被用来构建物种对的精细谱系，并与该属所有其他物种(总共约25种)进行比较，以检验进化的方向是从祖先的迁徙行为转向非迁徙行为，还是相反。此外，抽样的地理分布将允许对这三个物种对可能的地理进化过程进行一些初步预测，这三个物种对分布在中美洲和北美的热带和温带地区。从长远来看，这项研究将有助于评估鸟类迁徙行为对生态条件的反应有多大的延展性或适应性，或者它可能受到基因遗传的限制。

DEB 0004400Omland Migratory behavior is one of the more fascinating aspects of the biology of birds, but little is known with certainty about the evolution of migration in genera and families of birds with contrasting migratory and non-migratory species. Dr. Kevin Omland is studying this problem in the oriole genus Icterus, focusing on three pairs of closely related species, each with a migratory and non-migratory representative. Molecular DNA data are to be collected from numerous individuals sampled from populations in the U.S. and Mexico; field work in Mexico has already been completed with assistance from ornithologists at the National University of Mexico City. The data will be used to construct fine-scale genealogies of the species pairs, in comparison with all other species in the genus (ca. 25 species total) in turn to test whether the direction of evolution has been from ancestral migratory behavior to non-migratory, or the reverse. In addition, the geographic spread of sampling will allow some preliminary prediction of the likely geographic course of evolution in these three species pairs, which range from tropical to temperate zones across Central and North America. Longer term, the research will help to assess how malleable or adaptable is migratory behavior in birds, in response to ecological conditions, or how constrained it may be by genetic heritage.