Dissertation Research: An Analysis of Diversification in Neritopsine Gastropods: Evidence from Phylogeography and Paleontology

理解形成生物多样性的过程需要多种证据，包括来自古生物学、生态学、种群遗传学、生物地理学和系统发育学的证据。我将使用一种名为系统地理学的强大技术，它利用其中的许多线条来调查在一组被称为Neritopsina的腹足类动物中，哪些过程对产生多样性最重要。我将测试那些分布在空间中、有地理屏障的物种是否比没有地理屏障的物种在种群之间表现出更大的遗传差异。然后，我将把这些信息与它们进化关系和化石记录的数据结合起来，测试种群水平的这种差异是否表现为物种水平的显著多样性。由于生物多样性是一个动态过程，种群和物种处于不断变化的状态，因此有必要了解多样性是如何产生的，以便做出明智的保护决策。通过了解地理分布如何影响这些腹足类的进化史，我们可能更好地理解哪些过程需要保存，以确保多样性随着时间的推移保持相对稳定。我不会只关注这些腹足类物种的现状，而是研究如何更好地确保它们在未来数千年里继续保持和产生多样性。

Understanding the processes that shape biodiversity requires multiple lines of evidence, including those from paleobiology, ecology, population genetics, biogeography, and phylogenetics. I will use a powerful technique, known as phylogeography, that employs many of these lines to investigate which processes have been most important in generating diversity in a group of gastropods known as the Neritopsina. I will be testing whether or not species that are distributed in space with geographic barriers separating them show more genetic divergence between populations than species that have no barriers between populations. I will then combine this information with data from their evolutionary relationships and fossil record to test whether or not this divergence at the population level is manifested as significant diversity at the species level.As biodiversity is a dynamic process, with populations and species in a constant state of flux, it is necessary to understand how diversity is generated in order to make informed conservation decisions. By understanding how geographic distribution has affected the evolutionary history of these gastropods, we may better understand which processes need to be conserved in order to ensure that diversity remains relatively stable through time. Instead of focusing solely on the current state of these gastropod species, I will be examining how we might better ensure that they are allowed to continue to maintain and generate diversity in the millennia to come.