Supervisors: Dr. Xavier VEKEMANS (EEP), Dr. Bert VAN BOCXLAER (EEP), Dr. Christian ALBRECHT (JLU Giessen, Germany)
Subject of the thesis: Linking microevolutionary and macroevolutionary processes in freshwater mollusks from the East African Rift System.
e-mail: claudia.ortiz-sepulveda@univ-lille.fr
bureau: SN2, 104
Invertebrates are exceptionally diverse, but unfortunately, many species are declining severely because of anthropogenic changes to their habitat. Freshwater mollusks and, especially freshwater bivalves exemplify this problem: they perform important ecosystem services (e.g. water purification, nutrient recycling) but, currently they belong to the most imperiled groups of freshwater biota worldwide.
Our understanding of diversity and the taxonomy of the African freshwater bivalves are mainly based on descriptions of shell morphology and the geographic distribution of morphospecies. As a consequence, the phylogenetic relationships, evolutionary history and population genetics of many taxa remain uncertain, biogeographic scenarios of diversification have not been evaluated and the relations between morphological disparity, ecological factors, molecular diversity remain unexplored. This combination of limited systematic knowledge on African freshwater bivalves in combination with their strong biodiversity decline at a global scale is exceptionally unfortunate because it leads to a situation where lack of data hampers the development of conservation policies for African taxa and may lead to the potential irretrievable loss of poorly known biodiversity.
To redress these above-mentioned gaps of knowledge, my PhD project has three aims: (1) to document phylogeographic patterns of diversity in Unionidae throughout the East African Rift System; (2) to examine whether molecular diversity and morphological disparity are correlated; and (3) to investigate mechanisms of population differentiation in the Malawi Basin in an attempt to reconstruct how population differentiation may have promoted speciation and clade diversification.
During my PhD, I am mainly focusing on the study of African freshwater bivalves, but I am also collaborating on trying to link microevolutionary and macroevolutionary processes of diversification in gastropods of the East African Rift System, and since my undergraduate and master studies, I remain interested in elucidating the taxonomy and diversity of Neotropical ants as well.
Papers
Coelaturini) indicate historic hydrographic connections throughout the East
African Rift SystemTélécharger
More papers
Ortiz-Sepulveda C.M., Van Bocxlaer B., Meneses A.D., Fernandez F. (2019). Molecular and morphological recognition of species boundaries in the neglected ant genus Brachymyrmex (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): toward a taxonomic revision. Organism Diversity & Evolution 19:447-542 DOI 10.1007/s13127-019-00406-2
Fernandez F. & Ortiz-Sepulveda C.M. (2019). Capítulo 25: Subfamilia Formicinae in: Hormigas de Colombia. Fernandez F., Guerrero R.J., Delsinne T. (Eds.). Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia. https://www.uneditorial.com/bw-hormigas-de-colombia-biologia.html