Assessing genetic impoverishment and extinction risk in two rare relic species of insects using museum genomics and ecological niche modeling

The goal of this project is to evaluate the genetic diversity of recently extinct vs. extant populations of two species of orthopteran insects, Bryodemella tuberculata (Fabricius, 1775) and Gampsocleis glabra (Herbst, 1786). Both of these species occupy large Eurasian ranges, but suffered severe declines at the Western edges of their ranges, specifically in northern Germany. The band-winged grasshopper B. tuberculata is a specialist of vegetation-free sand and gravel habitats, whereas the bush cricket G. glabra is restricted to steppe and heath vegetation. Both these habitat types have become very rare across Germany. We will analyze samples of northern German extinct populations and compare them to extant populations from across the ranges of both species in order to understand the genetic diversity lost by local extinction. In addition, we use ecological niche modeling (ENM) to explore the past, present, and future climatic landscape suitability for both species to understand the influence of climatic factors and to identify areas of habitat suitability that are essential to ensure their conservation under future climatic scenarios.

Drittmittelgeber: UHH Risk and Innovation Funds+
Projektverantwortliche: Martin Husemann, Oliver Hawlitschek, Marianna Simoes