Abstract
Global climate and land use change is causing rapid declines in biodiversity, but biomes are not affected equally and respond differently to Anthropogenic environmental change. The deep-time evolutionary history of biomes plays a role in this response, and this effect is particularly strong in biodiversity hotspots. Biodiversity hotspots are primarily found in geologically complex regions shaped by tectonic or volcanic activity, and understanding how the dynamic geological history of these regions shaped their biodiversity provides insight into how biodiversity responds to environmental change. The aim of this project is to identify the imprint of geological history on extant biodiversity in the biodiversity hotspot of New Caledonia through reconstruction of the regional paleogeographic and paleoclimatic history, and the origin and diversification history of New Caledonian life. New Caledonia is a mountainous island in the southwest Pacific with extraordinary levels of endemism and remarkable ancient lineages, which is puzzling in light of the island’s geological history including a phase of submergence. In this road to riches project, I aim to resolve the biogeographic history of New Caledonia by: - Using magnetostratigraphy, organic biomarker analyses and palynology to reconstruct (1) the Paleocene-Eocene reemergence of New Caledonia and the stability of land in the area, (2) mountain building during the Oligocene-Miocene, and (3) paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental evolution. - Testing how paleoenvironmental change correlates with the diversification of life on New Caledonia. I will analyze a new high-quality phylogenetic tree of New Caledonian flightless beetles (Tenebrionidae) including many more New Caledonian species than any currently available phylogeny, and reinterpret previously published phylogenetic datasets in light of novel geological and climatological insight. Road to riches innovates by integrating the state-of-the-art of evolutionary biology with detailed reconstructions of geological history, thereby deciphering the long- and short-term effects of different components of environmental change on biodiversity.
Netherlands