Phylogenomics of Avian Taxa in The Southwest Pacific

Abstract

Island archipelagos provide natural laboratories to investigate how geographical and ecological differences impact the process of speciation. I investigated the evolutionary history of four different bird species complexes distributed throughout the southwest Pacific. Within the Solomon Islands, all species complexes contained genetic evidence for independent sister lineages on Makira and Ugi. All four systems also identified a close relationship between populations on Guadalcanal, Isabel, and Choiseul, with only one system indicating the potential for multiple lineages across these islands. For three of the species complexes, I uncovered evidence potentially indicating geneflow between distinct lineages, suggesting differentiation has proceeded in the presence of geneflow. This dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature investigating genetic diversity and genomic differentiation for taxa across the southwest Pacific.