Forschung

My research mainly focuses on the adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika. The Great East African Lakes (Tanganyika, Malawi, Victoria) are known for their cichlid species flocks containing hundreds of species and thus provide ideal model systems for studying adaptive radiation. Lake Tanganyika is the oldest of these lakes and harbors the ecologically, morphologically, and behaviorally most diverse assemblage of cichlids. At present about 200 cichlid species are described from Lake Tanganyika, but there are several more awaiting scientific description. The present day cichlid species flock of Lake Tanganyika consists of both ancient African lineages that now exist nowhere else and modern lineages that arose during the Tanganyikan radiation itself. High speciation rates in East African cichlid fishes are believed to be driven by the complex interaction of extrinsic factors, such as major biogeographical processes and intrinsic biological characteristics of the involved organisms. Thus, assessing the relative importance of extrinsic factors (providing the opportunity for radiation) and intrinsic factors (giving the potential to radiate) is an important prerequisite to understand the process of adaptive radiation. Several major cladogenesis events in Lake Tanganyika cichlids can be correlated with severe habitat changes in the form of lake level fluctuations. Interestingly this is true not only for rock-dwelling cichlids, but also for species living in open water. By means of molecular genetic approaches questions concerning phylogeny, phylogeography, population genetics and mating system of Lake Tanganyika cichlids are addressed. I am also working on the phylogeography of riverine cichlids, mainly from Zambian rivers, to compare their modes and degrees of diversification with those of lacustrine cichlids.

The very different climatic and hydrologic environments in Austria are mirrored by a large variety of habitats and, as a result, also biodiversity. Many Austrian animal species are threatened with extinction and a large number is a least partially imperiled. Quite a few species are endemic to Austria. Suprisingly littele is known about the (genetic) diversity of the Austrian fauna. DNA barcoding, the standardized genetic analysis of a given, species-specific part of the genome, can give a first but important hints at the genetic diversity and aids in developing new efficient methods to assess biodiversity or track invasive or endangered species. By means of a geographically and taxonomically comprehensive barcoding approach, new research projects can be instigated which in turn will yield new knowledge about and a deeper understanding of Austrian biodiversity.