Phylogeography and molecular ecology of East African tropical forests
This work is based mainly in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and southern Kenya - an ancient group of crystalline mountains estimated to be up to 30 million years old. The Eastern Arc Mountains support some of the oldest tropical forest in Africa and are internationally recognised as a biodiversity hotspot supporting many species that occur nowhere else on earth.
Many plant taxa that occur on the Eastern Arc Mountains have complex present day distributions that present many questions about their geographical and evolutionary origins. Species that occur on the ancient Eastern Arc Mountains may also have populations on the comparatively recent nearby volcanic mountains such as Meru and Kilimanjaro (1 - 2 million years old). Given that these relatively young mountains are not linked to the Eastern Arc by forest, when have Eastern Arc species colonised them and from where?
When we look at distributional patterns within species, the relationship between their populations is not always clear, and their relative ages are usually unknown. Although we can formulate hypotheses about their evolutionary origins based on their current geographical distribution, these hypotheses are rarely testable based on morphological characters.
Forest on Uluguru South
Characterising the phylogenetic relationships between populations of key taxa of the Eastern Arc flora using DNA sequence data, and comparing phylogenetic relationships with the species’ distributional patterns will inform on evolutionary and colonisation histories.
Comparison of these phylogeographical patterns for multiple species will enable us to identify fundamental biogeographical patterns within the region. A deeper understanding of the distribution of biodiversity within the region will allow more informed conservation decisions to be made
Related publications
Jump AS, Carr M, Ahrends A, Marchant R (2014). Genetic divergence during long-term isolation in highly diverse populations of tropical trees across the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania. Biotropica, 46, 565-574
Gereau RE, Burgess ND, Fjeldså J, Hall J, Hep A, Jump AS, Kajuni AR, Marchant RA, Marshall AR, Platts PJ, Taylor CM, Tibazarwa FI (2013). Phylogenetic patterns of extinction risk: the need for critical application of appropriate datasets. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e55v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.55v1
Ahrends A, Jump A, Lovett JC, Marchant R (2006). Vegetation data analysis Mselezi Forest Reserve. Report to Frontier-Tanzania (BREAM project).
