CAREER: Comparative Vertebrate Phylogeography as a Tool for Reconstructing Environmental Change and Effect in Madagascar

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

9985205 Yoder Madagascar is home to some of the most rare and endangered organisms on Earth. Unfortunately, many of these unique species are under immediate threat of extinction due to a combination of natural and human-induced alteration of the environment (e.g., deforestation). This career development plan will explore the evolutionary history of Malagasy vertebrates using "comparative phylogeographic" methods and will reveal aspects of the recent history of landscape evolution in Madagascar and its impact on the native vertebrates. The results will be significant for understanding the consequences of natural climate change for vertebrate speciation mechanisms and dispersal patterns and of human impact on genetic diversity of forest-dependent taxa. In addition to revealing the impact of environmental events on vertebrate evolution, the research has the potential to inform conservation policy for one of earth's most ecologically-diverse and threatened environments. The research is highly collaborative in that each taxon-specific project will be coordinated with the research efforts of an individual Malagasy-student collaborator. The advantages of this system are two-fold in that it offers research training to Malagasy scientists while also providing the research program with unprecedented access to biological samples from an array of rare and endangered Malagasy vertebrates. A fundamental strength of the research is that it so naturally integrates research with training and education. The educational link will be further enhanced via a new course in conservation genetics to be offered at the undergraduate level. The objectives of this course are threefold: 1) to convey an understanding of the evolutionary process and its outcome, 2) to educate students in the basics of evolutionary-genetic and phylogenetic techniques, and their applications for conservation strategy, and 3) to confront the difficult practicalities of instituting conservation measures in the real world. The Malagasy-student collaborators will participate in the course both as students and as visiting scholars. It is anticipated that the interaction of international and U. S. students from very different cultural and economic backgrounds will be a revealing experience for both.