Phylogeny and phylogeography in Lepidocyrtus (Collembola: Entomobryidae)

1) Projects
My first project aims at clarifying the species status of Lepidocyrtus species in Germany and Europe on a molecular basis. Seven Lepidocyrtus species common in Germany and several other common species from outside Germany will be analyzed. The mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene (COI) has been proposed as standard DNA barcode for animals, but Collembola species show high intraspecific variance in COI sequence divergence, which indicates that currently recognized morphological species might underestimate true Collembola biodiversity. Genetic data are needed to sort out the taxonomy of the genus Lepidocyrtus as diagnostic morphological characters are insufficient for species identification. Across Europe the intraspecific molecular variation (in all Lepidocyrtus species) could be very high. I am using a set of genes for the phylogeny (18S rRNA, Histone 3, 28S rRNA, Elongation factor 1-alpha, COI, COII, and 16S rRNA) to obtain high resolution phylogenetic trees. Genetic datasets are analyzed with parsimony, likelihood and Bayesian algorithms.

In my second project I investigate the phylogeography of two or three species of Lepidocyrtus across their distribution range [i.e., Europe to Eurasia (Russia), including east of China] using mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Based on the results of the phylogeny I will choose at least three genes aiming at investigating the historical distribution and population structure of one typical forest species and one typical grassland species. I am interested in the past distribution patterns of these species and would like to see, if the genetic structure of the grassland and forest species coincide with the extension of grassland vegetation in the Miocene or if more recent climate changes (i.e., during the Pleistocene) influenced the distribution ranges of genetic lineages.

2) Resume

Taxonomy of the genus Lepidocyrtus (Collembola: Entomobryidae), 11.09.2015 - 30.09.2015
Department of Animal Biology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Visiting student: Soil Collembola ecology, 06.2012 - 05.2014
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Science, Changchun, China.

Master of Management: 09.2011 - 07.2014
Land Resource Management, College of Earth Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Master Thesis: Effects of land use types on biodiversity of winter active Collembola in Sanjiang Plain.

Bachelor of Agriculture, 09.2007 - 07.2011
Agricultural Resources and Environment, College of Plant Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Bachelor thesis: Cloning and genetic transformation of ZmCIPK4 and ZmCIPK8.

3) Publications

Bing Zhang, Liang Chang, Ni Zhen, Mac A Callaham Jr., Xin Sun, Donghui Wu. Effects of land use changes on winter-active Collembola in Sanjiang Plain of China. Applied Soil Ecology, 2014, 83, 51-58.

Bing Zhang, Liang Chang, Ni Zhen, Haitao, WU, Xin Sun, Donghui Wu. A review of the snow-living Collembola. Acta Ecologica Sinica, 2014, 34: 1922-1936. (In Chinese with English abstract)

Xin Sun, Bing Zhang, Wu Donghui. Two new species and a new country record of Protaphorura Absolon, 1901 (Collembola: Onychiuridae) from Northeast China. Zootaxa 2013, 3693: 207-220.

Winter living Collembola research