Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-05-27

Cladogenesis and Niche Evolution in Madagascan Forests

Objective

MADCLADES will provide novel insights into the evolution of plant diversity in tropical forests, the world’s most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems. It will also provide the first substantial insights into plant diversification on Madagascar. We will study the evolutionary assembly of the island’s forests using palms (Arecaceae) as a model group. Madagascan palms (195 spp., 192 endemic) are present in all forest types of the island and play an integral role in forest ecology. We will reconstruct the phylogeny of all Madagascan palms and use it together with information on species distributions, traits, and niches to address several outstanding questions of plant evolution. First, we will address the question why some clades have diversified excessively (e.g. Dypsidinae with 165 spp.) while others have not? Second, we will study the diversification of two larger clades in detail and test hypotheses regarding the roles of traits, niches, and environmental change. Third, we will focus on a small lineage to study a biome shift between savannah and forest at a population level. Finally, we will integrate the phylogenetic information with distribution data and IUCN Red List assessments to derive new conservation priorities for species and regions. The results will add to the fundamental knowledge about biodiversity dynamics that is required to tackle the societally important biodiversity crisis. The Researcher will receive intensive training in Next-Generation Sequencing for phylogenetics and phylogeography, cutting-edge evolutionary modelling, population genetics, conservation biology and collections-based research as well as additional research and transferable skills that are central to his development as an independent scientist. The output of MADCLADES will be communicated through high-impact science journals and various outreach mechanisms, highlighting excellence of the European Research Area and increasing public awareness of biodiversity issues.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator

ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS KEW
EU contribution
€ 221 606,40
Address
ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS KEW
TW93AB Richmond
United Kingdom

See on map

Region
London Outer London — West and North West Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data
My booklet 0 0