Cryptic biodiversity in western Europe related to climatic variations during the end of the Quaternary period – the example of field voles

Funding: EPHE & Transbio Graduate School

Started in october 2022

Supervisors: Sophie Montuire & Aurélie Khimoun

Abstract

Drastic environmental changes that occurred during the last glacial cycles provide natural experiments to study the responses of present-day species to major changes in their environment. The identification of numerous cryptic molecular lineages in Western Europe in many taxonomic groups and in particular in vole rodents suggests the existence of non-adaptive radiations in relation to these climatic responses. The thesis project will thus seek to infer, at the level of the Microtus agrestis species complex, the demography and evolution of these cryptic entities, which sometimes present disjointed ranges and secondary contact zones in Burgundy Franche-Comté. These units are thought to have individualised around the Younger Dryas climatic event (12 kyr). By combining population genomics, morphometry and isotopy, this project will study the mechanisms that led to genetic isolation and to these rapid speciation events. Evolutionary inferences will be made from complete genomes from the DNA extracted from the teeth. An extension of the project will concern ancient DNA during the last millennia, this species being observed in abundance in the fossiliferous localities of Western Europe.

Keywords

evolutionary biology, ecology, environments, cryptic diversity, genetics, geometric morphometrics

extrait:

lien_externe:

titre:

Biodiversité cryptique en Europe occidentale en relation aux fluctuations climatiques de la fin du Quaternaire – l’exemple des campagnols agrestes

date_de_debut_these:

octobre 2022

nom:

marsouin

date_de_debut_these_numerique:

202210

kc_data:

a:8:{i:0;s:0:"";s:4:"mode";s:0:"";s:3:"css";s:0:"";s:9:"max_width";s:0:"";s:7:"classes";s:0:"";s:9:"thumbnail";s:0:"";s:9:"collapsed";s:0:"";s:9:"optimized";s:0:"";}

kc_raw_content:

Cryptic biodiversity in western Europe related to climatic variations during the end of the Quaternary period - the example of field voles

Funding: EPHE & Transbio Graduate School

Started in october 2022

Supervisors: Sophie Montuire & Aurélie Khimoun

 

Abstract

Drastic environmental changes that occurred during the last glacial cycles provide natural experiments to study the responses of present-day species to major changes in their environment. The identification of numerous cryptic molecular lineages in Western Europe in many taxonomic groups and in particular in vole rodents suggests the existence of non-adaptive radiations in relation to these climatic responses. The thesis project will thus seek to infer, at the level of the Microtus agrestis species complex, the demography and evolution of these cryptic entities, which sometimes present disjointed ranges and secondary contact zones in Burgundy Franche-Comté. These units are thought to have individualised around the Younger Dryas climatic event (12 kyr). By combining population genomics, morphometry and isotopy, this project will study the mechanisms that led to genetic isolation and to these rapid speciation events. Evolutionary inferences will be made from complete genomes from the DNA extracted from the teeth. An extension of the project will concern ancient DNA during the last millennia, this species being observed in abundance in the fossiliferous localities of Western Europe.

 

Keywords

evolutionary biology, ecology, environments, cryptic diversity, genetics, geometric morphometrics