The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.
This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Corinne Lee Richards to work with Dr. Roberto D. Ibanez at the University of Panama in Panama City, Panama, with Dr. Molly E. Cummings at the University of Texas at Austin, in Texas, and Drs. Jim McGuire and Eileen Lacey at the University of California, Berkeley.
Understanding the relative importance of natural and sexual selection to the process of speciation remains a significant challenge in evolutionary biology. While the importance of natural selection has been strongly supported both theoretically and empirically, sexual selection's role in generating and maintaining reproductive isolation among incipient species lacks strong empirical support, despite theoretical evidence of its potential to drive speciation. This research aims to improve our understanding of the processes and mechanisms leading to the evolution of reproductive isolation through the integration of ecological, morphological, behavioral and molecular studies of the highly variable strawberry poison dart frogs (Dendrobates pumilio) of the Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama. The detail afforded by this study's integrative approach will facilitate our understanding of the mechanisms driving the rapid evolution of morphological diversity among incipient species. The D. pumilio system provides a unique opportunity to elucidate factors important to the generation and maintenance of biodiversity due to their morphological and behavioral diversity, geographic proximity, rapid divergence, and unique form of parental care. For this reason, the system has the potential to become a model for studies of speciation and this research to serve as a springboard for other important ecological and evolutionary studies in the future.
