Biodiversity and tectonics of the Coral Triangle

The Coral Triangle (roughly encompassing East Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua) lies in a tectonically active region, that constantly reshapes the landscape of the archipelago. The geological records informs on those paleogeographical changes. The objective is to couple the tectonic evolution to biodiversification processes. The first aim is to quantify tectonic changes in the region from the geological record. The second aim is to input observations as boundary conditions for a mechanistical, numerical model of biodiversification of the area.
On this basis, we expect to assess the extent to which geodynamics drive biodiversification in the Coral Triangle over Plio-Quaternary time scales.

This project is grounded on a longterm project with Indonesian partners from LIPI, Bandung.