Madagascar
Continental escarpments, such as occur on passive margins are dynamic with frequent fluvial reorganizations and in similar way mountains, they can harbor disproportionately high biodiversity and stimulate biological evolution through speciation. This has long fascinated natural scientists and generated questions regarding the underlying processes. Madagascar provides an example of such active margin escarpment and one that has a dramatic biodiversity signal and highest endemic species richness in the world.
Project members
Yi Liu links geological, climatic, and biological processes to understand what has shaped contemporary patterns of plant biodiversity across global mountain systems through time. He investigates potential drivers and biodiversity, which should include an estimate of diversity, phylogenetic tree, fossil, geological and paleoclimatic reconstruction and dynamics in regions such as Madagascar but not only.