Comparative biogeography and diversification of birds on Madagascar

岛屿是研究物种如何在新环境中定居和多样化的进化和生态过程的天然实验室。马达加斯加岛是一个生物多样性的热点，以其独特的鸟类群而闻名-鸟类物种的特殊多样性在其他地方找不到。该项目以马达加斯加为模型，解决生物学中的一个基本问题：为什么随着时间的推移，一些群体比其他群体更加多样化。马达加斯加目前的鸟类区系是历史上周边地区几次独立殖民的结果。尽管数百万年前到达马达加斯加，但只有一半的本土血统随后在这个大岛上形成。该项目将重点对马达加斯加岛上研究不足的鸟类多样性进行全面调查，以确定是什么原因导致一些群体多样化，而另一些群体则无法形成物种。该研究将对物种多样性和多样化模式进行更准确的评估，这对随后在这一高度受威胁的景观中采取保护措施至关重要。该项目将促进国际合作、从高中到博士后阶段的教育和培训、保护政策和公众宣传活动。在不同背景和专业知识的国际科学家的大力合作下，该项目将利用系统发育、地理分布和表型数据研究所有43个地方性陆生鸟类谱系，包括14个独立的辐射。这项研究有三个主要目标。首先，马达加斯加鸟类谱系及其近亲的系统和地理信息的坚实基础将被开发，以提供更准确的评估马达加斯加境内的物种多样性，以及洞察殖民的时间和路线。其次，分析血统如何以及为什么在新的环境殖民化后在生态和形态上发生变化。这些分析将包括马达加斯加特有物种及其大陆亲属的形态，羽毛和气候生态位的大规模表征，以确定共同的环境设置的共享和分支特定的进化反应的重要性。第三，将确定岛内物种形成和适应性辐射的可预测性。该研究将调查殖民后辐射的概率作为众多预测因素的函数，包括营养形态的进化不稳定性，环境耐受性和个体分支的内在“物种形成潜力”。该项目是一种对生物群进行全面分析的新方法，对理解生命进化树中物种丰富度的差异具有广泛的影响。

Islands are natural laboratories for studying the evolutionary and ecological processes of how species colonize and diversify in novel environments. The island of Madagascar is a biodiversity hotspot that is renowned for its distinctive avifauna -- an exceptional diversity of bird species found nowhere else. This project uses Madagascar as a model to address a fundamental question in biology: why some groups become much more diverse than others over time. The current bird fauna of Madagascar is the result of several independent colonizations from surrounding regions over historical time. Despite arriving in Madagascar millions of years ago, only half the native lineages have subsequently speciated within this large island. This project will focus on a comprehensive investigation of the poorly-studied bird diversity on Madagascar to determine what causes some groups to diversify while others fail to speciate. The study will produce a more accurate assessment of species diversity and diversification patterns, which is crucial for subsequent conservation measures in this highly threatened landscape. This project will promote international collaborations, education and training from high-school to postdoctoral stages, conservation policy, and public outreach activities.With a strong collaboration of international scientists of diverse backgrounds and expertise, this project will examine all 43 endemic terrestrial avian lineages, including 14 independent radiations, using phylogenetic, biogeographic, and phenotypic data. This study has three main objectives. First, a robust foundation of systematic and biogeographic information for Malagasy avian lineages and their close relatives will be developed to provide more accurate assessments of species diversity within Madagascar, as well as insight into the timing and routes of colonizations. Second, analyses of how and why lineages change in ecology and morphology upon colonization of novel environments will be conducted. These analyses will include large-scale characterization of morphology, plumage, and climatic niche across Malagasy endemic species and their continental relatives to determine the importance of shared and clade-specific evolutionary responses to common environmental settings. Third, predictability of within-island speciation and adaptive radiation will be determined. The research will investigate the probability of radiation after colonization as a function of numerous predictors, including evolutionary lability of trophic morphology, environmental tolerance, and the intrinsic "speciation potential" of individual clades. This project is a novel approach towards a comprehensive analysis of a biota and has broad implications for understanding the disparity in species richness across the evolutionary tree of life.