Bachelor thesis: DNA barcoding

Because of the progressive loss of biodiversity on the one hand and a still fragmentary knowledge of species composition in many ecosystems on the other hand we need tools for a rapid biodiversity assessment. The method of DNA Barcoding could be such a tool to enforce the endeavour for completing the “Encyclopaedia of Life” on earth. Especially for taxa, like the termites, with fairly similar morphological features among species and therefore a high possibility of the occurrence of cryptic species, we need approaches for fast identification. The DNA barcoding approach was tested in this work for termites using the mitochondrial COII gene. I tried to figure out a threshold for species delimitation which could help others to define MOTUs (Molecular Operational Taxonomic Unit) for diversity assessment or even taxonomic projects. Available termite sequences of the COII gene were received from the online database GenBank. Thresholds for species delimitation were defined for each of the seven families of the order Isoptera and the success of these thresholds was determined. The family thresholds and even the threshold, which were calculated over the whole order gives a good success. The threshold to discriminate species was about 0.05 of K2P distance with an identification success of about 90 %. The Threshold for genera discrimination was about 0.14 of K2P distance also with a high success of about 90 %. In this work it was showed, that it makes sense to work with molecular divergences in ecology.

Master thesis: genetic divergences of ring ouzels (Turdus torquatus) in context of climate change

Climate change is affecting species worldwide and leading to massive species extinction. Low mountain ranges all over the world, an especially in Europe are highly affected by the impact of global warming. In consequence, any upward shift caused by a risen temperature leads to decrease of available habitats and an increase in fragmentation and the low maximum altitude restricts the possibility to shift ranges upwards to escape the increase of temperature and in turn the change in ecosystems, and on the other hand the available area decreases with altitude. One of such species is the ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus). Therefore we have chosen this thrush species as a case study because it is, or was formerly distributed in the most of the middle European low, and high mountain ranges. Due to the fact that individual birds return to specific breeding and wintering areas each year, the populations in the different breeding grounds could be highly differentiated from each other. Furthermore, long time isolation of local populations might lead to the loss of single populations. This it is not only a loss of alleles but might also influence in ongoing evolution.

Teaching

Geländeübungen zur biologischen Vielfalt, Artenkenntnis Zoologie, Ansprache von Tieren im Gelände

Poster:

Zipporah B. Osiemo, Andreas Marten, Eugen Egorov, Michael Bacht, Godfrey H. Kagezi, Johanna P.E.C. Darlington, Manfred Kaib, Linus M. Gitonga, Hamadi I. Boga and Roland Brandl: Assessment of termite biodiversity in Kakamega forest (Kenya) using DNA barcodes