Abstract booklet - gtö – Society for Tropical Ecology

204 SCIENTIFIC POSTER SESSION | FOYERSCIENTIFIC POSTER SESSION | FOYER205Free contributionTopic: Hotspot Wallacea: Understanding the past to save the futureGALLERY FORESTS IN WEST AFRICA - REFUGIA DURING CLIMATEOSCILLATIONSPATHWAYS FOR FRESHWATER FAUNA INTO WALLACEASebastian Klaus 1 , Bruno Streit 1Ivana Kirchmair 1 , Marco Schmidt 1 , Birgit Kanz 1 , Daniele Silvestro 1 ,Georg Zizka 11Dept. Ecology & Evolution, Goethe University, Siesmayerstrasse 70A, Frankfurt amMain, DE, streit@bio.uni-frankfurt.de,Presenter: Bruno Streit1BiK-F, Frankfurt, DE, ivana.kirchmair@senckenberg.deWEDNESDAY | FOYERGallery forests form diversity “islands” in the West African savanna regionand are assumed to have served as diversity and repopulation centresduring climate oscillations in the Cenozoic.Gallery forests were sampled along a climatic gradient from the Sahelian zoneto the South Sudanian Zone in Burkina Faso. Plant material from both, typicalgallery forest species like Paullinia pinnata, Cola laurifolia, Berlinia grandifloraund Pterocarpus santalinoides and more widespread species like Anogeissusleiocarpa, Diospyros mespiliformis and Tamarindus indica was collected.The genetic diversity within the species was analysed using AFLP data toinvestigate various populations along the transect. The population structureand the genetic variation are then correlated to the geographic distributionand discussed in the light of past climate and vegetation changes in theregion.Most islands that comprise the biogeographic region of Wallacea neverhad terrestrial contact with neighbouring Southeast Asian and Australiancontinental shelfs. This poses the question where, how, and when freshwaterorganisms colonised Wallacea. One completely freshwater adapted group,lacking any marine planctonic larvae, are freshwater crabs of the familyGecarcinucidae. Based on molecular phylogenetic data of the Gecarcinucidaeand fossil calibrated molecular clock estimates, we show that this group enteredWallacea during the Miocene several times independently. At least two differentbiogeographic dispersal pathways can be identified: (5) from the Sunda shelf toSulawesi and (2) from the Philippines to the Moluccas. Possibly, gecarcinucidcrabs were able to surmount shorter marine passages, using islands as steppingstones.Wednesday WEDNESDAY 16:00 | FOYER | FoyergtöSociety for Tropical Ecology | Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie e.V. Status and future of tropical biodiversity | Frankfurt, 21 - 24 February 2011gtö