Project: Do Parallel Patterns Arise from Parallel Processes?

This project will survey the taxonomic, genetic, and functional diversity of the organisms found in marine lakes, and investigate the processes that cause gains and losses in this biodiversity. Marine lakes formed as melting ice sheets raised sea level after the last glacial maximum and flooded hundreds of inland valleys around the world. Inoculated with marine life from the surrounding sea and then isolated to varying degrees for the next 6,000 to 15,000 years, these marine lakes provide multiple, independent examples of how environments and interactions between species can drive extinction and speciation. Researchers will survey the microbes, algae, invertebrates, and fishes present in 40 marine lakes in Palau and Papua, and study how diversity has changed over time by retrieving the remains of organisms preserved in sediments on the lake bottoms. The project will test whether the number of species, the diversity of functional roles played by organisms, and the genetic diversity within species increase and decrease in parallel; whether certain species can greatly curtail diversity by changing the environment; whether the size of a lake determines its biodiversity; and whether the processes that control diversity in marine organisms are similar to those that operate on land.

Because biodiversity underlies the ecosystem services on which society depends, society has a great interest in understanding the processes that generate and retain biodiversity in nature. This project will also help conserve areas of economic importance. Marine lakes in the study region are important for tourism, and researchers will work closely with governmental and non-governmental conservation and education groups and with diving and tourism businesses to raise awareness of the value and threats to marine lakes in Indonesia and Palau.