Dr Chris Lusk, Dr R Smissen
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
The single most controversial feature of the New Zealand flora is the small-leaved, twiggy, tangled (“divaricating”) growth form that has evolved locally in at least 17 different plant families. Prolonged debate about this remarkable case of convergent evolution has been polarized around two well-known hypotheses. First interpreted as a response to the Plio-Pleistocene onset of frosty droughty conditions, divaricate forms are now widely regarded as an anachronistic defence against large browsing birds (moa) that went extinct shortly after human arrival during the last millennium. Resolving this controversy is vital for understanding the status of divaricate plants in contemporary New Zealand, and for predicting the likely impact of browsing mammals and climate change on their future abundance and distribution.
The two hypotheses generate different predictions about the antiquity of the divaricate form in New Zealand. The ancestors of moa reached the New Zealand landmass > 60 million years ago; if moa browsing were the main driver of the evolution of divaricate plants, this growth form should have a long local history. In contrast, if climate was a major driver, a much more recent origin is predicted, in response to Plio-Pleistocene global cooling, and the local development of frosty, droughty rain-shadow environments in the lee of the recently uplifted axial ranges.
The successful applicant will determine dates of divergences of divaricate species from broadleaved congeners. You will extract, amplify and sequence DNA of divaricate and broadleaved plant species using massively parallel sequencing technology, and be trained in the analyses needed to reconstruct and date phylogenies. You will work with an interdisciplinary supervisory team including Chris Lusk of University of Waikato, and Rob Smissen of Landcare Research (Lincoln). The laboratory work will be carried out at Lincoln. This thesis topic forms an important part of a 3-year Marsden project recently funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand.
Funding Notes
The scholarship is for three years, providing a stipend of NZ$27,500 per year and covering enrolment fees.
Applicants must have a BSc (Hons) or MSc degree, or equivalent. Knowledge of evolutionary biology, molecular biology, plant genetics, taxonomy and systematics, statistical modelling, and bioinformatics would all be advantageous. International students may apply. The successful candidate will have excellent verbal and written English skills, and good organizational and communication skills. You will be able to work independently, and take pride in your work.
Please send your CV and a one- page expression of interest to [Email Address Removed], by 31 December 2016
References
Bond WJ, Lee WG, Craine JM. 2004. Plant structural defences against browsing birds: a legacy of New Zealand's extinct moas. Oikos, 104: 500–508
Cooper A,, Atkinson I, Lee WG, Worthy T. 1993. Evolution of the moa and their effect on the New Zealand flora. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8: 433–437
Lusk CH, McGlone MS, Overton JM. 2016. Climate predicts the proportion of divaricate plant species in New Zealand arborescent assemblages. Journal of Biogeography 43: 1881–1892
McGlone MS, Webb, CJ. 1981. Selective forces influencing the evolution of divaricating plants. New Zealand Journal of Ecology 4: 20–28
Wood JR, Wilmshurst JM (In press) Changes in New Zealand forest plant communities following the prehistoric extinction of avian megaherbivores. Journal of Vegetation Science
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