Comparative Phylogeography of Lowland New Guinea

新几内亚的低地热带森林幅员辽阔，基本上是相互联系的。生活在低地森林中的动物物种通常是常见的，并持续分布在这些低地(基本上是环绕新几内亚中部山脉的一圈)。然而，低地森林物种往往表现出巨大的遗传或表型变异。我们假设这种差异主要是由于地理或地质历史造成的，我们提出了几个可能解释这种差异的可检验的假设(包括特定的历史事件或扩散障碍、栖息地差异和多个相互竞争的进化过程)。我们将使用对六种常见的、广泛分布的焦点鸟类的线粒体和核DNA序列变异的分析来确定哪种进化模式最能解释新几内亚低地森林的变异模式和来源。这项研究将首次使用现代遗传数据和对新几内亚低地系统地理的分析。我们希望这些数据能够识别迄今未被识别的低地生物地理省份，因此它将对保护规划产生重要影响。我们的生物学证据将为地质事件的时间提供独立的估计。此外，这项研究将采用并批判性地检查仍在成熟的新的系统地理分析。我们希望在复杂的地理区域，如新几内亚，批判性地检查这些测试的假设和用途。最后，该项目将培训6-8名新几内亚生物学学生，他们将获得实地技术、系统学和进化生物学方面的实践经验。

New Guinea's lowland tropical forests are vast and are largely connected. Animal species living in lowland forests are often common and continuously distributed throughout these lowlands (in essentially a ring around the central mountain ranges of New Guinea). However, lowland forest species often show tremendous amounts of genetic or phenotypic variation. We hypothesize that this variation is due largely to geographic or geologic history, and we propose several testable hypotheses that might account for this variation (including specific historical events or dispersal barriers, habitat differences, and multiple competing evolutionary processes). We will use analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence variation from six common, widespread focal bird species to determine which evolutionary models best explain the pattern and sources of variation in New Guinea's lowland forests.This study will be the first to employ modern genetic data and analyses to the phylogeography of lowland New Guinea. We expect these data to identify lowland biogeographic provinces heretofore unrecognized, and it will therefore have important implications for conservation planning. Our biological evidence will provide independent estimates of the timing of geologic events. In addition, this study will employ and critically examine new phylogeographic analyses that are still maturing. We hope to critically examine the assumptions and uses of these tests in complex geographical regions, such as New Guinea. Finally, the project will train 6-8 New Guinea biology students who will receive practical experience in field techniques, systematics, and evolutionary biology.