Jimena Golcher Benavides

I am most interested in the role microhabitats play in the development of early reproductive barriers between fish populations, emergence of complex traits and evolution of phenotypic diversity in the wild. African cichlids have undergone diversification in sympatry and at a very fast rate but the potential underlying causes for this variation are not completely known. Gradients in water biogeochemistry across depth and surface area in lake environments seem to facilitate the initial isolation of closely related fish. For my PhD, I plan on identifying actual mechanisms leading phenotypes to fit better in specific environments and therefore potentially explain present fish diversity at a broader spatial scale or predict future differentiation.