Collaborative Research: Unraveling evolutionary processes in avian species distributed across the Southern African arid-zone

干旱生态系统覆盖了地球陆地表面的三分之一，许多生态系统的特有程度与热带生物群落一样高。尽管支持丰富的生物多样性，干旱生态系统通常被忽视的模式，调查进化过程。南部非洲区域的特点是三面为陡峭悬崖的内陆高原，湿度从西向东呈梯度增加，生境从极度干旱到潮湿。这种复杂的地形和气候变化反映在景观水平上，有七种不同的植被类型或生物群落。尽管有大量的特有物种（非洲最大的区域集中），在南部非洲干旱的生态系统中，进化、生态和气候过程在塑造鸟类种群历史方面的作用被严重忽视。该提案旨在通过充分利用分子生态学和物种分布建模提供的工具，了解促使南部非洲干旱区12种鸟类类群多样化的过程。 加州大学伯克利分校、得克萨斯州农工大学和南部非洲几个机构-包括大学、博物馆和保护机构-之间的合作，这项提议将包括培训和交流研究生和博士后学者，并让本科生参与研究。

Arid ecosystems cover one third of Earth's land surface, and many have levels of endemism as high as tropical biomes. Despite supporting a rich biodiversity, arid ecosystems are generally overlooked as models for investigating evolutionary processes. The southern Africa region is characterized by a high interior plateau bounded on three sides by a steep escarpment, the presence of a west-to-east gradient of increasing moisture, and hyper-arid to humid habitats. This complex topography and climatic variation is reflected at the landscape level with seven distinct vegetation types or biomes. Despite a large number of endemic species (the greatest regional concentration in Africa), the role of evolutionary, ecological and climatic processes in shaping bird population histories has been sorely neglected in southern African arid ecosystems. This proposal aims to understand the processes that have driven the diversification of 12 bird taxa in the southern African arid zone by fully utilizing the tools provided by molecular ecology and species-distribution modelling. A collaboration between the University of California-Berkeley, Texas A&M University, and several southern African institutions -- including universities, museums and conservation agencies -- this proposal will include the training and exchange of graduate and postdoctoral scholars, and involve undergraduate students in research.