A Comparative Approach to Dating the Diversification of Hawaiian Diptera

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。夏威夷群岛为了解物种形成提供了一个无与伦比的系统。这个生物多样性的热点地区包含了世界上其他地方没有的大量物种。一个非常多样化的群体是夏威夷蝇（双翅目）。DNA序列将用于确定果蝇的进化史，然后这些历史将允许对生物地理、生态和进化假设进行测试。确定历史事件时间的有力方法将允许评估苍蝇何时从一个岛屿扩散到另一个岛屿。有了物种之间的关系和传播时间的信息，就有可能研究发生在不同夏威夷蝇群中的进化过程（例如，物种形成、灭绝、适应），每一种都表现出独特的遗传和生态特征。这项工作的更广泛影响包括教育和外联，代表性不足群体的参与，以及发展分析和计算方法来调查岛屿进化，生物地理学，物种形成，分化时间估计和生物多样性保护。实地和实验室部分将培训伯克利的研究生和本科生，以及夏威夷本土高中生。在可搜索的在线数据库中总结了有关夏威夷昆虫分布和丰富程度的广泛实地数据，将有助于保护管理决策。最后，这项工作将为理解岛屿系统生物多样性的演变提供一个统一的方法框架。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The Hawaiian Islands provide an unparalleled system for understanding species formation. This biodiversity hotspot contains large numbers of species that occur nowhere else in the world. One very diverse group is the Hawaiian files (Diptera). DNA sequences will be used to determine the evolutionary history of the flies, and then the history will permit testing of biogeographic, ecological, and evolutionary hypotheses. Powerful methods for determining the timing of historical events will permit assessment of when the flies dispersed from one island to the next. With the information on relationships among species and timing of dispersal, it will be possible to investigate evolutionary processes (e.g., speciation, extinction, adaptation) that occur in disparate groups of Hawaiian flies, each of which exhibits unique genetic and ecological characteristics.Broader impacts of this work include education and outreach, participation of underrepresented groups, and the development of analytical and computational approaches to investigate island evolution, biogeography, speciation, divergence-time estimation, and biodiversity conservation. The field and laboratory components will train Berkeley graduate and undergraduate students, as well as native Hawaiian high school students. Extensive field data on distribution and abundance of Hawaiian insects, summarized in searchable online databases, will facilitate conservation management decisions. Finally, this work will provide a unified methodological framework for understanding the evolution of biodiversity in island systems.