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.

 

Project Sampling:

xAndes replacements

25 taxa for contact zone study

Last update: 22 January 2010