Summer student research projects (2007)
Biologists have long studied island radiations to understand how both
adaptation and geographic isolation have interacted to generate
ecological diversity. The Hawaiian archipelago has been a productive
place to undertake such speciation studies, because its extreme
isolation from continental sources of immigrants and its highly
variable environments have spurred spectacular radiations of the few
lineages to have successfully colonized it. My current project
investigates the mechanisms and tempo of diversification of the 26+
species of Hawaiian tephritid flies, which have likely radiated from a
single colonizing ancestor in less than 3 million years. These
insects feed on plant species found only in Hawaii, including most
members of the Hawaiian silversword alliance; many feed on the seeds
and thus have a direct
impact on reproduction of their host plants, some of which are
federally endangered species.
I will likely involve two or three students on this project during
Summer 2007. The major goas this summer will be to complete the
species-level phylogeny using DNA sequence information from the
mitochondrial and nuclear genome. All work this summer will be in the
lab. Students should have a
demonstrated interest and some course work in organismal AND molecular
biology, including Bio 251 and 252, as well as an interest in learning
new techniques and analyses.
If you are interested working on this project, please review the
following document before contacting me by email:
Brown, J.M. (Grant proposal to the Mellon Foundation) Generating
the entangled bank (a shorter version of above NSF grant).