What can Phylogeographic Breaks in the Livebearer Poeciliopsis Turrubarensis tell us about Fish Community Boundaries in Western Costa Rica?

Authors

April Larson, Brigham Young University
Dr. Jerald B. Johnson, Brigham Young University

Keywords

phylogeographic breaks, livebearing fish, Peociliopsis turrubarensis

College

Life Sciences

Department

Biology

Abstract

One active area of study in ecology, termed biogeography, is the determination of how communities are formed. A basic knowledge of what factors have shaped the formation of ecological communities leads to greater understanding of a system as a whole and specific species interactions. One possible factor that is rarely taken into account when studying biogeography is the effect that early earth history events could have playing in the shaping of community boundaries. Molecular phylogeographic data is a useful tool in helping to determine the contribution of vicariant events in community formation. If single species genetic breaks coincide with community boundary breaks, we can infer that a vicariant event could have contributed to the observed pattern.

Recommended Citation

Larson, April and Johnson, Dr. Jerald B. (2013) "What can Phylogeographic Breaks in the Livebearer Poeciliopsis Turrubarensis tell us about Fish Community Boundaries in Western Costa Rica?," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 1109.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/1109