Bernardo Toledo, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC). Supervisors: FX Picó, A Marcer. Start: 2018.
Summary:
As a consequence of global climate change, species
distribution ranges are expected to be dramatically altered in the near
future. Hence, the identification of drivers accounting for distribution
range shifts has become a goal of paramount importance for better
understanding the ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, there is much
debate concerning whether geographic boundaries are driven by merely
geographic and climatic characteristics and/or by biological and
historical processes, such as dispersal, post-glacial re-colonization
history and human activities. Arabidopsis thaliana represents a useful
model system to assess the effects of these processes on distribution
patterns, mostly due to the high-quality and quantity of genetic and
genomic resources publicly available. Although previous studies provided
insight into the climatic features where A. thaliana is expected to
occur, the new tools and resources available, such as spatial
distribution models, satellite image, and predicted vegetation layers,
enable the use of more reliable distribution models including several
biotic and abiotic factors as well as the historical dynamics of the
species. This project aims to disentangle the differential role of
drivers accounting for contractions and expansions at very different
distribution edges as well as the forces governing the genetic structure
of A. thaliana with particular attention to contact and overlapping
zones among different genetic lineages. Furthermore, this PhD project
will shed light on the understanding of the drivers and processes
accounting for the distribution range of cosmopolitan organisms.