A Tibetan Cradle of Evolution - in-situ speciation and Out-of-Tibet radiations in passerine model species

在我们的DFG资助的项目中，我们确定了两个在青藏高原及其边缘具有起源和多样性中心的雀形目鸟类支系。从这两个属中，我们选择了两个目标种对(末端支序)进行后续研究。目标物种起源于更新世的谱系分裂，并包括沿QTP边缘和/或中亚和欧洲山脉系统的至少四个不同的系统群(线粒体谱系)。因此，我们的模式物种提供了QTP上的原位物种形成和向西部古北区的连续扩散的完美例子。在我们的后续项目中，我们的目标是使用RAD测序和SNP分析来分析欧亚育种范围内种间和种内的遗传多样性和系统地理模式。假设在青藏高原繁殖范围广泛重叠的姐妹物种已经经历了强烈的生态隔离(例如，在山区的气候和海拔生态位)，我们用物种分布模型(SDM)和生态位模型(ENM)来补充我们的遗传研究。目前还可以从网上资源获得的事件数据将接受质量检查，并由自己的基因分型记录和鸟类收集的标本数据补充。根据系统地理分析的结果，我们将把分布范围细分为可诊断的种下单位，我们期望这些单位与不同的气候生态位相对应(例如，QTP的南部和东部边缘，不同的海拔地带)。SDMS和ENMS将得到与中美科学家合作的野外观测和卫星遥感相结合的栖息地地图的补充。我们的后续项目牢牢扎根于DFG研究集群。在联合跨学科框架内，一组生物学家(动物学家、植物学家、生态学家)和地球科学家/模型师将首次非常密切地合作，探索如何将来自现有分类群的信息与来自过去环境的数据和模型结合起来，目的是探索QTP地区及更远地区的有机体进化。

In our DFG-funded project we identified two passerine bird clades with a center of origin and diversification on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and along its margins. From these two genera, we choose two target species pairs (terminal clades) for a follow-up study. Target species originated from Pleistocene lineage splits and comprise at least four different phylogroups (mitochondrial lineages) along the QTP margins and/ or in Central Asian and European mountain systems. Therefore our model species provide perfect examples of in-situ speciation on the QTP and successive dispersal to the Western Palearctic. In our follow-up project we aim at analyzing inter- and intraspecific genetic diversification and phylogeographic patters across Eurasian breeding ranges using RAD sequencing and SNP analysis. Assuming that sister species with widely overlapping breeding ranges on the QTP have undergone strong ecological segregation (e.g. in mountains with respect to the climatic and the elevational niche) we complement our genetic study with species distribution modeling (SDM) and ecological niche modeling (ENM). Occurrence data yet available from online resources will be subject to a quality check and complemented by own genotyped records and specimen data from bird collections. Based on the results from phylogeographic analysis we will subdivide distribution ranges into diagnosable infraspecific units that we expect to correspond with different climatic niches (e.g. southern and eastern QTP margins, different elevational zones). SDMs and ENMs will be complemented by habitat mapping inferred from a combination of field observation and satellite remote sensing in co-operation with Chinese and US American scientists. Our follow-up project is firmly embedded in a DFG research cluster. Within the joint interdisciplinary framework a group of biologists (zoologists, botanists, ecologists) and geoscientists/modellers for the first time will work very closely together to explore how to combine information derived from extant taxa with data and models from past environments with the goal to explore organismic evolution in the QTP region and beyond.