Cel Ancient lakes have long been recognized as natural evolutionary laboratories and hot spots of endemism; the evolution of their morphologically often highly diverse species flocks has received much attention. Ancient lakes are evolutionary reservoirs assuring the survival of endemic species, but at the same time can act as engines generating novel diversity through intralacustrine speciation. The discovery of cryptic diversity, defined as two or more distinct species that were classified as a single morphological one is believed to be an important factor increasing estimates of current biodiversity and influencing future conservation decisions. Genetic studies have highlighted cryptic diversity in many animal taxa including ostracods (Crustacea), with the general implication that there are many more species than currently recognised. Besides assessing the importance of cryptic ostracod species for biodiversity estimates and conservation of ancient lakes, CRYSTAL will also investigate the underlying evolutionary and ecological processes that may have led to the high diversity in explosive lacustrine radiations, using the Baikalian Cytherissa species flock as a model system. The Cytherissa-radiation (Cytherideidae) from Lake Baikal is one of the most species-rich ostracod flocks and contains 47 (sub-) species. Preliminary genetic results indicate that the Cytherissa morphospecies are not monophyletic and might thus contain cryptic species. CRYSTAL will estimate diversity patterns at three specific levels: ecosystem, taxic and genetic. It will try to identify the processes that may have led to the current diversity pattern investigating trophic specialisation, substrate preferences, sexual selection and hybridisation. Also the speciation of Cytherissa in space and time will be considered revealing whether sym- or allopatric processes were most important and when and how fast the Cytherissa radition took place during the millions of years since Lake Baikal exists. Dziedzina nauki natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems Program(-y) FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Temat(-y) FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF - Marie Curie Action: "Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development" Zaproszenie do składania wniosków FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF Zobacz inne projekty w ramach tego zaproszenia System finansowania MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF) Koordynator INSTITUT ROYAL DES SCIENCES NATURELLES DE BELGIQUE Wkład UE € 159 600,00 Adres RUE VAUTIER 29 1000 Bruxelles / Brussel Belgia Zobacz na mapie Region Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad Rodzaj działalności Research Organisations Kontakt administracyjny Koenraad-Rlm Martens (Prof.) Linki Kontakt z organizacją Opens in new window Strona internetowa Opens in new window Koszt całkowity Brak danych