Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C507453/1
Speciation in marine broadcast spawning invertebrates: global biogeography of tropical gastropod genus Turbo.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr S Williams, The Natural History Museum, Zoology
- Grant held at:
- The Natural History Museum, Zoology
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Natural Resource Management
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Population Genetics/Evolution
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Abstract:
- A significant number of studies over the past decade have addressed the question of how speciation occurs in widespread, widely dispersed marine species with large populations and high gene flow. Such characteristics, in combination with few obvious barriers to dispersal in the marine environment, are traditionally considered to result in infrequent or slow speciation. Yet, paradoxically, diversity within tropical oceans, particularly among shallow-water invertebrates, is often extremely high. Understanding how this diversity has arisen is a major goal of evolutionary biologists, and is the main focus of this proposal. It is proposed to generate the first molecular phylogeny for the circumtropical, species-rich, broadcast-spawning gastropod genus Turbo and to generate accurate distribution maps for each species based on museum collections. The combination of phylogeny and distributions will be used to answer four important questions about the origin of the high biodiversity seen in the marine tropics. 1) Mode of speciation - is there evidence of sympatric speciation in marine broadcast spawning invertebrates? 2) Geography of speciation - does the rate or mode of speciation differ between coastlines and islands? 3) Rate of speciation - did Plio-Pleistocene glaciations lead to an acceleration in the rate of speciation of shallow-water marine organisms? 4) Evolution of the Indo-West Pacific - are modern Indo-West Pacific taxa the result of a single radiation in situ, or are they remnants of a widespread Tethyan community?
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C507453/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- New Investigators Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- New Investigators
This grant award has a total value of £46,502
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| £14,261 | £4,356 | £25,880 | £2,004 |
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