History

The Mammal Population Ecology and Genetics group was created in 2014 and currently represents a team of fellows and researchers dedicated to integrating ecological and population genetic information of mammal species associated with coastal and continental environments of Argentina, most of which face serious conservation problems. Since its inception, the group's approach has been based on the need to incorporate new perspectives in ecology and population genetics, taking into account novel aspects of landscape genetics, phylogeography, phylogenetics, and potential species distribution models.

Importance of the Study Topic:
The partitioning of genetic variation (genetic structuring) into discrete population units is one of the factors that shapes demographic and evolutionary processes in different species. One of the most important ecological attributes from the perspective of ecology and population genetics of mammal species is their intrinsic dispersal capacities, their reproductive systems, and life histories, which, together with historical demographic processes, determine genetic subdivision at the geographic level. In order to obtain a better understanding of the functioning of mammal communities and their relationship with coastal and continental environments, it is extremely important to combine ecological studies (e.g., diversity, direct dispersal studies estimated through mark-recapture and radio-telemetry) with population genetics studies (demographic changes, genetic structure, gene flow, phylogeography).

Furthermore, understanding the set of evolutionary factors that promote population differentiation and ultimately lead to the speciation process is one of the central objectives in the field of evolutionary biology. Today, there is broad consensus that speciation is a highly complex multifactorial process for many biological systems that do not adequately fit current generalizations. Since species are not fixed entities but rather dynamic systems that evolve in space and time, identifying the role of abiotic, biological, and evolutionary factors involved in population differentiation and speciation phenomena is of great importance for understanding the evolutionary process.

The central and coastal region of Argentina represents a very poorly studied area regarding small mammals from a phylogeographic and phylogenetic perspective, offering important opportunities for the development of knowledge about the evolutionary phenomena involved in the genesis and persistence of biotic diversity. Particularly, the climatic disturbances that occurred during the Pleistocene (especially those of the Late Pleistocene) had severe consequences on the environmental evolution of the region, which led to the displacement of a large number of plant and animal populations, offering these regions the possibility of becoming a natural laboratory for the study of patterns of genetic variation and population history. There is much evidence of significant changes in the historical demography of species as a result of dramatic changes in the configuration of ecological niches during this period, fundamentally for species distributed at high latitudes or near the Andes mountain range. Many authors have sought to elucidate the direct impacts that Late Pleistocene climatic cycles have had on small mammal assemblages in the southern part of South America, and how these may have responded to such changes, indirectly contributing to revealing the history of the environments to which they are associated. Although our study group integrates ecological and genetic aspects in mammals, we are currently focused primarily on subterranean rodents of the genus Ctenomys. Given their specificity in habitat use and their low dispersal and colonization capacities, this latter group constitutes one of the most interesting models for analyzing the processes underlying population differentiation and divergence between species. Thus, understanding the process of differentiation among populations of different species requires the application of different approaches derived from phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, and landscape genetics.