On January 17th 2020, Dr. Jonas Eberle will hold a talk on "Species Delimitation: Current Challenges and how it enabled the Study of South African Chafer Populations". It will take place at 2 pm in lecture theatre 436 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Hellbrunnerstrasse 34. The Department of Biosciences cordially invites all listeners!
Dr. Jonas Eberle is PostDoc in the Research Group Habel, Department of Biosciences, University of Salzburg.
The proper recognition of species is crucial since species are the fundamental units of life and biodiversity on Earth. In the last decades, methods have been developed that quickly deliver species hypotheses on the basis of DNA sequences. However, many of these - including barcoding - rely on single mitochondrial markers which has severe drawbacks and can mislead species delimitation and identification. Two case studies of chafers impressively illustrate these problems and that multi-marker systems and integration with morphological data have the potential to overcome the issues at both sides of the spectrum (i) when species cannot be distinguished due to lack of information and (ii) when population boundaries are mistaken for species boundaries. In the case of South African chafers of the genus Pleophylla, species delimitation enabled the study of population connectivity in the first place. Their close association to the few forest remnants of the country allowed an assessment of forest habitat fragmentation in one of the most intriguing natural areas worldwide.
After the seminar (ca. 16:00 h), everybody is welcome to join us for drinks and munchies in the ,,coffee corner on the second floor".