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

• Applicant: Dr. Martin Päckert
• Subject Area: Evolution, Anthropology
• Term: from 2012 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 224578574

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.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Dr. Andreas Dahl; Dr. Heiko Stuckas