The Indo-West Pacific (IWP) has the highest marine biodiversity in the world. Diversity gradients suggest that this region is a Center of Origin, yet this theory lacks a convincing mechanism to explain the creation of this biodiversity. Although terrestrial biologists rely heavily on allopatric models to explain speciation and the creation of biodiversity, the appropriateness of allopatric divergence is questionable in marine ecosystems where pelagic larval dispersal is assumed to facilitate gene flow and limit genetic differentiation among geographically isolated populations. Previous work Dr. Barber and others has challenged this assumption by identifying sharp regional genetic breaks in stomatopod populations throughout the IWP, suggesting that the Malucca and Flores Seas may act as barriers to pelagic larval dispersal.
This project integrates physical oceanography, population genetics, and geography in a comparative phylgeographic framework to explicitly test the role of allopatric divergence in marine species with pelagic larval dispersal. By examining geographic, temporal, and genealogical concordance in multiple reef-dwelling species, allopatric divergence across the Malucca and Flores Seas (by vicariance or isolation of peripheral populations) will be explicitly tested, significantly advancing our understanding of the origins of high marine biodiversity in the IWP and of evolutionary processes in marine environments.
This work will form the foundation of undergraduate/graduate education efforts in The form of courses that integrate marine biology and modern molecular genetics through the study of larval dispersal/recruitment and evolutionary processes in marine environments. Course work will be extended and enhanced by undergraduate research experiences that provide training in field and laboratory techniques through independent mentored research. The research will form a conduit for a scientific exchange, training, and mentoring graduate students and Indonesian scientists to prepare the next generation of marine scientists for active careers studying the marine environments of the IWP.
Undergraduate educational efforts will blur traditional boundaries separating marine and molecular biology and will increase interest in marine research by providing cohesive and integrated research experiences. Aggressive recruitment efforts targeting underrepresented minorities for these opportunities will increase diversity within the marine science community. The combination of these undergraduate research activities with new and existing courses in a research emphasis track will serve as a model for expanding the curriculum in the Boston University Marine Program and will increase undergraduate educational and research opportunities within the Woods Hole community. Graduate education and international scientific exchanges will expand the community of marine scientists that are proficient in the theory and application of molecular techniques to marine science, and will fertilize an increase in marine research focused in the IWP. The results produced through these combined efforts are essential to the management of marine resources. Identification of regionally isolated faunas and the processes that create them will aid in identifying regional management units, helping marine conservation strategies in the highly threaten reefs of the IWP to be framed in a biologically meaningful fashion. Combining these activities will provide the foundation for a career integrating research and education in the pursuit of understanding dispersal and evolutionary processes in marine environments.
