Dissertation Research: Resolving bipolar phylogeographic histories in dispersal limited mosses: a RAD-Seq approach

许多植物的地理分布是由跨越海洋和不合适栖息地的长距离传播（LDD）形成的，通常是由气流形成的。然而，与风路径无关的地理分布以及不适合风传播的广泛分布物种的出现表明，传播可能通过其他方式完成，例如候鸟。我们对LDD的了解及其对全球植物区系多样性的影响仅限于具有高传播能力的生物可以利用风路的模式案例。Lewis和Goffinet将使用革命性的基因组测序技术来重建非模型的全球扩散历史，并评估这些事件对原始高纬度地区生物多样性的频率和意义。了解形成生物多样性的过程使我们能够更好地了解我们所知道的生态系统是如何形成的，以及它们可能如何变化。高纬度地区代表了世界上的一些地区？美国最原始的生态系统，但也最容易受到全球气候变化的影响。Lewis和Goffinet与智利最南端的合恩角生物圈保护区合作，将科学调查、就地保护、社区教育和生态旅游结合起来，向公众介绍高纬度苔藓植物的多样性，并有助于我们了解这些生物、它们的生态系统和全球植物传播。

The geographic distribution of many plants is shaped by long distance dispersal (LDD) across oceans and unsuitable habitats, typically by wind currents. Geographic distributions that do not correlate with wind paths and the occurrence of widely distributed species not suited for wind dispersal suggests, however, that dispersal may be accomplished by other means, such as by migratory birds. Our knowledge of LDD and thus its affect on shaping global floristic diversity is limited to model cases where wind paths are available for organisms with high dispersal ability. Lewis and Goffinet will use revolutionary genome sequencing techniques, to reconstruct non-model global dispersal histories and assess the frequency and significance of these events on the biodiversity of pristine high latitude regions. Understanding the processes that shape biodiversity allow us to better understand how the ecosystems we know have come to be, and how they may change. High latitude regions represent some of the world?s most pristine ecosystems, but also the most vulnerable ones to global climate change. In conjunction with the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve of Southernmost Chile, Lewis and Goffinet are integrating scientific investigation, in-situ conservation, community education, and ecotourism to introduce the public to high latitude bryophyte diversity and contribute to our understanding of these organisms, their ecosystems, and global plant dispersal.