Analysis of regional variation in bird species diversity along the Himalayas

该项目的目标是记录印度东北部喜马拉雅山脉的鸟类多样性，并询问为什么那里的物种数量是印度喜马拉雅山脉西部的两倍多。 来自印度野生动物研究所和美国芝加哥大学的一个印度科学家和学生小组将在喜马拉雅山脉的几个地点工作，调查所有物种的密度和分布。 在实验室，DNA测序方法将用于评估物种之间的系统发育关系。这项研究解决了一个长期存在的科学问题：不同地点之间物种数量差异的历史和生态原因是什么？ 它使用了一种新的方法来做到这一点，通过研究在许多不同的鸟类属中从东到西物种数量下降的模式，并询问每个属中的模式是否相似。 东喜马拉雅山脉可能是世界上物种密度第二高的地区，但由于各种后勤原因，几乎没有进行过研究。 许多动植物物种仍有待发现，可能包括一些新的鸟类物种。因此，这项工作具有广泛的保护和教育意义。

The goal of this project is to document the bird diversity of the Himalayas of north-east India, and to ask why more than twice as many species are present there than in the western Himalayas of India. A team of Indian scientists and students from the Wildlife Institute of India and the University of Chicago, USA, will work at several sites across the Himalayas, surveying densities and distributions of all species. In the laboratory, DNA sequencing methods will be used to evaluate the phylogenetic relationships among the species.The study tackles a longstanding scientific problem: What are the historical and ecological causes of the difference in numbers of species between locations? It uses a novel approach to do this by studying patterns of decline in species numbers from east to west within many different genera of birds, and asking if the patterns are similar in each genus. The eastern Himalayas contain perhaps the second highest concentration of species in the world, but have been scarcely studied for various logistical reasons. Many animal and plant species remain to be discovered, including perhaps some new bird species. The work thus has broad conservation and educational significance.