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一样高。尽管干旱生态系统支持丰富的生物多样性，但作为研究进化过程的模型，干旱生态系统通常被忽视。南部非洲地区的特点是高内陆高原，三面以陡峭的悬崖为边界，存在自西向东不断增加的水分梯度，以及极度干旱到潮湿的生境。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。尽管有大量特有物种(非洲最大的区域集中)，但在南部非洲干旱生态系统中，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模型所提供的工具，了解推动南部非洲干旱地区12个鸟类分类群多样化的过程。加州大学伯克利分校和德克萨斯农工大学与南部非洲的几个机构--包括大学、博物馆和保护机构--合作，这项提议将包括培养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.