Evolution and Biogeography in the Indomalayan-Melanesian-Oceanian region - part 2

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Balke
• Subject Area: Systematics and Morphology (Zoology)
• Term: from 2011 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 193060934

The region between mainland Southeast Asia and Oceania is biologically and geologically very diverse. Indonesia, with the Wallace line and other boundaries dividing its archipelago biogeographically, is a megadiverse faunistic (and floristic) transition zone between the Oriental and Australian regions. Central macroevolutionary questions are: How was such diverse biota shaped in space and time, where does biota come from, which relative roles do tectonic events and climatic change play? Here, diving beetles are our proxy to comprehensively address these questions based on a species rich (> 700 species in the region) and ecologically diverse group of aquatic fauna. We use phylogenetic trees based on DNA sequence data. Here, we focus on the Indonesian archipelago and build on a large existing dataset of Australian and Melanesian diving beetles and an existing global data set for the family. Based on this comprehensive sampling, we will be able to reveal which evolutionary and environmental processes have contributed to faunal diversity, essentially testing predictions of island biodiversity. We have previously been able to show that some groups show suprisingly complex dispersal patterns, e.g. back and forth across the Indonesian archipelago over the past <7 million years and expect that complex patterns are more common than previously believed.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants