Cracraft, Joel: AMNH (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2012 - 2018
NRA: 2012 NSF
Funded by NASA, Other US Funding: NSF Proposal managed by Woody Turner
Abstract:
Amazonia is Earth's most iconic center of biological diversity and endemism and is among the most important terrestrial biomes due to its contributions to global systems ecology. This project seeks to answer an overarching question in biodiversity science: How was the modern Amazonian biota and its environment assembled across space and time? The research is designed to understand the evolutionary and environmental-ecological history of late Neogene-Recent Amazonia through a comparative approach that integrates across the disciplines of systematics, population biology, ecosystem structure and function, geology, Earth systems modeling and remote sensing, and environmental history. The project also investigates how biotic and environmental change over this time-period influenced Amazonian functional diversity in biogeochemical flows, and how these, in turn, shaped the dimensions of biodiversity seen today as well as the history of global-scale changes in biogeochemical cycling. The project, which is a collaboration with Brazilian scientists and funding agencies, represents the most integrative examination of Amazonian biodiversity and its history to date. The approaches taken describe a methodological template for analyzing information about the history of biotic and environmental change across large, ecologically complex landscapes that can be generalized to other systems. The project creates a large framework for formal and informal education including the training of students, development of a major museum exhibit on Amazonia, workshops for K-12 STEM teachers, publications in professional educational journals, and a web portal, The Evolutionary Encyclopedia of Amazonian Biodiversity, that will make all results available to the public, as well as serve as an informational platform about Amazonian biodiversity and its global importance. This award is being co-funded by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering.
Publications:
Barrowclough, G. F., Cracraft, J., Klicka, J., Zink, R. M. 2016. How Many Kinds of Birds Are There and Why Does It Matter? PLOS ONE. 11(11), e0166307. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0166307
Cerqueira, P. V., Santos, M. P. D., Aleixo, A. 2016. Phylogeography, inter-specific limits and diversification of Turdus ignobilis (Aves: Turdidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 97, 177-186. DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2016.01.005
Cracraft, J., Claramunt, S. 2017. Conceptual and analytical worldviews shape differences about global avian biogeography. Journal of Biogeography. 44(4), 958-960. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12969
Cracraft, J., Houde, P., Ho, S. Y. W., Mindell, D. P., Fjeldsa, J., Lindow, B., Edwards, S. V., Rahbek, C., Mirarab, S., Warnow, T., Gilbert, M. T. P., Zhang, G., Braun, E. L., Jarvis, E. D. 2015. Response to Comment on "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds". Science. 349(6255), 1460-1460. DOI: 10.1126/science.aab1578
Grohmann, C. H. 2016. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS AND ULTRA-PROMINENT MOUNTAIN PEAKS. ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences. III-4, 17-23. DOI: 10.5194/isprs-annals-iii-4-17-2016
Huang, Y., Mori, S. A., Kelly, L. M. 2015. Toward a phylogenetic-based Generic Classification of Neotropical Lecythidaceae--I. Status of Bertholletia, Corythophora, Eschweilera and Lecythis. Phytotaxa. 203(2), 85. DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.203.2.1
Joffe, S., Garfunkel, Z. 1987. Plate kinematics of the circum Red Sea--a re-evaluation. Tectonophysics. 141(1-3), 5-22. DOI: 10.1016/0040-1951(87)90171-5
Lima, M. G. M., Buckner, J. C., Silva-Junior, J. D. S. E., Aleixo, A., Martins, A. B., Boubli, J. P., Link, A., Farias, I. P., da Silva, M. N., Rohe, F., Queiroz, H., Chiou, K. L., Di Fiore, A., Alfaro, M. E., Lynch Alfaro, J. W. 2017. Capuchin monkey biogeography: understanding Sapajus
Pleistocene range expansion and the current sympatry between Cebus
and Sapajus. Journal of Biogeography. 44(4), 810-820. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12945
Matos, M. V., Borges, S. H., d'Horta, F. M., Cornelius, C., Latrubesse, E., Cohn-Haft, M., Ribas, C. C. 2016. Comparative Phylogeography of Two Bird Species,Tachyphonus phoenicius(Thraupidae) andPolytmus theresiae(Trochilidae), Specialized in Amazonian White-sand Vegetation. Biotropica. 48(1), 110-120. DOI: 10.1111/btp.12292
Sawakuchi, A. O., Hartmann, G. A., Sawakuchi, H. O., Pupim, F. N., Bertassoli, D. J., Parra, M., Antinao, J. L., Sousa, L. M., Sabaj Perez, M. H., Oliveira, P. E., Santos, R. A., Savian, J. F., Grohmann, C. H., Medeiros, V. B., McGlue, M. M., Bicudo, D. C., Faustino, S. B. 2015. The Volta Grande do Xingu: reconstruction of past environments and forecasting of future scenarios of a unique Amazonian fluvial landscape. Scientific Drilling. 20, 21-32. DOI: 10.5194/sd-20-21-2015
Tello, J. G., Raposo, M., Bates, J. M., Bravo, G. A., Cadena, C. D., Maldonado-Coelho, M. 2014. Reassessment of the systematics of the widespread Neotropical genusCercomacra(Aves: Thamnophilidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 170(3), 546-565. DOI: 10.1111/zoj.12116
Waltari, E., Schroeder, R., McDonald, K., Anderson, R. P., Carnaval, A. 2014. Bioclimatic variables derived from remote sensing: assessment and application for species distribution modelling. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 5(10), 1033-1042. DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.12264
Weeks, B. C., Claramunt, S., Cracraft, J. 2016. Integrating systematics and biogeography to disentangle the roles of history and ecology in biotic assembly. Journal of Biogeography. 43(8), 1546-1559. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.12747
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
