Demographic model tests in neotropical species: a comparative approach between humid and dry biomes

• Grant number: 22/00303-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2022
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Aparecida da Silva Bonatelli
• Grantee: Alexandre Pacheco Erclievski Melo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Ambientais, Químicas e Farmacêuticas (ICAQF). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Diadema. Diadema , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The knowledge of species' geographical occurrence through time is crucial for the comprehension of the evolutionary processes that molded the biodiversity of a region. Substantial changes in species distribution are commonly associated with geological and climatic events. In particular, the climatic oscillations of the Pleistocene seem to have caused changes in species distribution at a global level. However, most studies that deal with this theme are based on post hoc inference, unique taxa which mostly belong to the northern hemisphere, neglecting the Neotropics. Recently meta-analyses that seek synthetic results, have shown to be important tools in phylogeography. The present project aims to analyze the response of different species from arid and humid biomes of the Neotropical region to the climactic events of the Pleistocene. In order to achieve this goal, a comparative phylogeographic approach will be used with data available in public repositories. The collected georeferenced genetic data will be manipulated aiming to create a database organized by biomes and taxonomic groups. This data will be used to estimate the demographic history of the populations throughout the climatic changes of the Pleistocene using a coalescent approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). In addition, the synchrony of expansion and retraction events will be estimated through hierarchical ABC (hABC). The results of the present work should offer a broad knowledge about the effects of the refugees and climatic Pleistocene events. Also, this work should instigate the reuse of available data for investigating biological questions on a broader spatial and taxonomic scale. (AU).