Comparative phylogeography of Neotropical birds
with cross-Andes distributions
PI
Robb T. Brumfield, Ph.D., Museum of Natural
Science, Louisiana State University
Senior Scientists
Alexandre
Aleixo, Ph.D., Museu Paraense Em’lio Goeldi, BelŽm, Par‡, Brazil
Daniel Cadena, Ph.D., Universidad de los Andes,
Bogot‡, Colombia
Jorge PŽrez-Em‡n, Ph.D., Instituto
de Zoologia Tropical, Universidad Central de
Venezuela
Postdoctoral Fellow
John McCormack, Ph.D., Museum of Natural
Science, Louisiana State University
Other Collaborators:
Curt Burney, Ph.D., USAF
Mike Hickerson, Ph.D., Queens College, CUNY
Project Summary:
Regional biological diversity reaches a zenith in the tropical
rain forests of South America, yet the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms
responsible for the origin and maintenance of this diversity remain very poorly
understood. The primary goal of
this project is to use a comparative phylogeographic
framework to investigate the role of the Andes as a historical and contemporary
diversifying barrier for lowland organisms. The major research objectives are to: 1) collect genetic
data from 125 avian species or species groups with cross-Andes distributions,
2) infer the geographic structure of populations, 3) test whether these data
can statistically reject a model in which a single vicariant
event (e.g. the Andean uplift) explains the distribution of cross-Andes genetic
divergence values, 3) test for effects of ecological, behavioral, and
demographic variables on levels of cross-Andes genetic divergence, 4) use
ecological niche modeling to test how climatic variables influence the current
isolation (humid forest species) or connectivity (non-forest species) of
populations, 5) reconstruct the paleo-distribution of
habitats at putative cross-Andes dispersal corridors and use ecological niche
modeling of individual species to test whether cross-Andes dispersal was
plausible for them across the paleo-corridor, 7) for
a subset of 25 humid forest species whose cross-Andes populations come into
contact in Colombia or Venezuela, characterize the genetic, morphological, and
climatic transitions across the contact zones.using
the phylogeny as the foundation for a suite of morphological character
analyses.
25 taxa
for contact zone study
Last update: 22 January 2010