Connecting models of ecological diversification to phylogenetic data

Patterns of species (co)-occurrences seem static when viewed from the perspective of a human lifetime. On evolutionary time scales, however, species appear (speciation) and die out (extinction); and in the meantime, they change their ecological properties or traits (through adaptation or neutral processes) and their geographic distribution (range dynamics). Understanding how these processes arise and how they are influenced by external factors such as climate and biotic interactions is not only one of the fundamental interests of ecology and evolution, it is also of paramount importance for developing an informed response to environmental and climate change. This project will develop and tests Bayesian and approximate Bayesian methods to fit diversification models to phylogenetic and biogeographical data. These developments will result in: 1) a better estimation of speciation and extinction rates, and a better understanding of how these rates vary through time, clades, and according to abiotic factors, and 2) a better estimation of the rates of climatic niche evolution, and a better understanding of how these rates vary through time, clades and according to climatic changes.

Start of project: 2015
End of project: 2016

Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg
Hartig F
Professur für Biometrie und Umweltsystemanalyse
Prof. Dr. Dormann
Tennenbacherstr. 4
79098 Freiburg i. Br.
Germany

Phone: +49 761 203-3749
Fax: +49 761 203-3751
Email: info@biom.uni-freiburg.de
http://www.biometrie.uni-freiburg.de/
Actual Research Report

• Budic L
• Hartig F
• Bauche P
• Manceau M
• Rillo M

• DAAD