This project builds on an earlier Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga study led by Dr Shane Wright that shows faster evolution occurs in more productive, high energy, tropical climates. This is the first research worldwide to demonstrate this.

This subsequent project took a global dataset to compare rates of evolution for sister bird species in small and large area habitats. The main finding was that the larger populations have faster rates of molecular evolution despite the fact that the existing dogma suggests that smaller populations should evolve more rapidly. The other main finding was tropical species, unaffected by the slowdown of hibernation, did show faster rates of molecular evolution.

Outputs

Publications - Journal articles
Wright, S., Ross, H., Keeling, J., McBride, P., Gillman, L. (2011) Thermal energy and the rate of genetic evolution in marine fishes. Evolutionary Ecology, Volume 25, Issue 2, pp 525-530.