Abstract Detail

Pacific Biogeography

Potter, Benjamin [1], Appelhans, Marc [2], Wagner, Warren [3].

Pacific Biogeography.

The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean on the planet and it covers an area bigger than those of all continents together. Its numerous islands amount to only a tiny percentage of the total area of the ocean. Pacific archipelagos rank among the most isolated landmasses on the planet and they are characterized by high endemicity of their flora and fauna. Dispersal events in the Pacific region are facilitated by vectors such as tropical storms, birds, floatable seeds and rafting. Successful colonizations of remote Pacific archipelagos are relatively rare events. The founder populations are likely very small, and inbreeding depression excludes many potential colonizers from establishment. Despite these difficulties, many plant lineages have successfully colonized Pacific archipelagos, with some of these successively undergoing adaptive radiations leading to high species richness. Most Pacific archipelagos are of volcanic origin and the age of most current islands is usually Pliocene or later. Phylogenetic studies of adaptive radiations in the Pacific, using only one or a few gene regions, were often hampered by these recent origins and resulted in tree topologies with low resolution and support. As such, recently developed next-generation sequencing methods offer exciting opportunities to study the biogeography, evolutionary history and ecology of Pacific plants. This proposed colloquium aims to bring together researchers interested in Pacific plant biogeography and evolution. A focus will be on results from investigations using genome-level data, but studies using densely sampled first-generation sequencing data will also be presented.

1 - University of Auckland, School of Biological Sciences, 3a Symonds Street, Auckland, 1010, NZ
2 - University of Göttingen, Göttingen Herbarium, Wilhelmsplatz 1 (Aula), Göttingen, 37073, Germany
3 - Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, West Loading Dock, 10th and Constitution Ave, Washington, DC, 20560-0166, USA

Keywords:
Pacific
Hawaii
New Zealand
New Caledonia
Biogeography
Evolution.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: C12, Pacific biogeography
Location: 103/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Wednesday, July 25th, 2018
Time: 1:30 PM
Number: C12SUM
Abstract ID:31
Candidate for Awards:None