Date of Award
2012
Publication Type
Master Thesis
Degree Name
M.Sc.
Department
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Keywords
ancient lakes, evolution, phylogenetics, speciation
Supervisor
Melania E Cristescu
Supervisor
G D Haffner
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Abstract
One of the fundamental questions in biology is the origin of species. Considerable insights into the processes that drive speciation have come from ancient lake systems. In this thesis, I present insights into speciation processes by investigating the species radiations of the ancient Malili Lakes of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The nature of adaptive radiations in the lakes suggests that intraspecific competition for extremely limited resources has driven taxa to adapt to specific habitats and food sources. The copepod populations of Sulawesi reveal that colonization order governs the geographic distribution of zooplankton in freshwater ecosystems. In many Malili Lakes taxa, hybridization between closely related lineages drives diversification, likely by increasing phenotypic diversity within populations. Furthermore, hybridization may be much more common in planktonic taxa than previously thought. Future research in these remarkable habitats is sure to reveal much about the role of hybridization and the origins of biodiversity on earth.
Recommended Citation
Vaillant, James Joseph, "Speciation in ancient lakes: Insights from the copepods of Sulawesi" (2012). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5587.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/5587