This project will consider the fundamental drivers underlying boreal fauna diversification by investigating the dramatic biogeographic transition in the boreal North Atlantic between the European and eastern North American terrestrial gastropod provinces. This research will determine how much of species and genetic turnover is correlated to environment vs. geography, in particular ocean and ice sheet barriers. The Greenland Ice Sheet is the only place in the modern world where the effectiveness of ice barriers on biological isolation and allopatric speciation can still be observed. We will then use this data to document the role of isolation barriers over deeper macroevolutionary time scales by predicting range limits and dispersal barriers in the Late Glacial Maximum (LGM). These insights can then be used to inform optimum conservation strategies for boreal biodiversity in the face of unprecedented global climate change.

Publications