One of the most intriguing questions in modern biogeography relates to Neotropical plant diversity. The high number of species in this region was once thought to be due to the antiquity of rainforest habitats; however, recent studies suggest that many Neotropical flowering plant groups have been diversifying in the last 10-20 my. Recent episodes of plant diversification in the neotropics raise questions such as why have there been so many recent speciation events and what were the contributing biotic and abiotic factors. This study aims to investigate the biogeography and origin of Vochysia, a strictly Neotropical group that is hyper-diverse, widely distributed and relatively young. By contributing to a better understanding about the drivers of recent diversification in a group of plants, it will lead to an improvement in general conservation strategies since it will improve knowledge about species distribution and diversification. This research will be valuable for the academic progress of a graduate student and an undergraduate student that is gaining experience in bioinformatics, data analysis, laboratory, and herbarium protocols.
This project seeks to improve the knowledge of the historical biogeography of plants of the neotropics by investigating the tempo and mode of Vochysia diversification. A phylogenetic reconstruction of the group will be done using next generation sequencing and computational analytical tools to provide a phylogenetic tree for investigating the evolutionary history of Vochysia. The analysis of the mode of evolution will be done using software for phylogenetic tree dating calibration, biogeographical reconstruction, and niche modeling. Results from these analyses will allow inferences to be made about the relative importance of vicariance versus dispersal and niche conservatism versus divergence with an emphasis on endemic and rare species of Vochysia. The tempo of Vochysia diversification will involve comparing the net diversification rates within the genus and between sub-clades from different biomes using a modern Bayesian-based software that models the complex dynamics of species diversification.
