2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Animal biodiversity, evolution and ecological functions of vertical cliff

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22657026
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Biodiversity/Systematics
Research Institution	Kyushu University
Principal Investigator	KANO Yuichi 九州大学, 大学院・工学研究院, 特任助教 (60467876)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2012
Keywords	アリ類 / バッタ類 / クロヨシノボリ / キバラヨシノボリ / 垂直断崖 / 滝 / 平行進化 / 陸封化
Research Abstract	The animal biodiversity on cliff and ecological/evolutional significance of cliff were elucidated. About the former, the animal diversity on cliff surface was not different from that of surrounding forests, although the plant biodiversity on cliff was different from that of surrounding forest in another study by Y. Kano. About latter, waterfall, a kind of cliff, was elucidated to drive evolution of an amphidromous fish (Rhinogobius brunneus: BR) to a landlocked fish (Rhinogobius sp. YB: YB). Land erosion forced BR to be landlocked and drove BR to evolve YB. The evolution of BR -YB was occurred independently above each waterfall, while the morphology among YBs were quite similar indicating parallel evolution was caused by waterfalls