Biogeography of the globally distributed raft spiders (Pisauridae: Dolomedes)Yu, Kuang-Ping (Avtor) Kuntner, Matjaž (Mentor) BiogeographytaxonomysystematicsphylogeneticsDolomedidaeThe fishing spiders, genus Dolomedes, are globally distributed freshwater-associated invertebrates. Although several Dolomedes species are popular model organisms in many study fields, their biogeographic history remains largely unknown. Therefore, my dissertation aims to detect and bridge the knowledge gaps that hamper such studies and reconstruct the global biogeographic history of Dolomedes. By reviewing the vast literature, these knowledge gaps are ambiguous species boundaries, the conflicting familial affiliation, and the unknown species-level phylogeny. My dissertation develops an integrative taxonomic model to test the species boundaries among closely related Dolomedes from Madagascar and La Réunion. The model suggests that valid species with robust boundaries should be morphologically, phylogenetically, and ecological diagnosable. Through the proposed species boundaries, my dissertation gathers and delimits an extensive taxon set of 53 out of the total 105 Dolomedes species, spanning the genus range, with relevant outgroups to reconstruct a species-level UCE phylogeny. The results necessitate removal of Dolomedes and its Oceanian relatives from Pisauridae and erecting a separate family, Dolomedidae. The divergence time estimations reconstruct a late Miocene origin of Dolomedes, between 9 and 16 Ma. By integrating all the above results, my dissertation reconstructs the ancestral area of Dolomedes in the Australasian + Oriental realm. My original BioGeoBEARS pipeline, correcting physical distances among realms by historic climate data, suggests that the late Cenozoic plate tectonics and climate oscillations combined shaped the Dolomedes diversity pattern. However, the analyses detect no significant influence of morphological, behavioural, and ecological traits on the biogeographic history of Dolomedes. My dissertation largely closes the knowledge gaps in Dolomedes research. It provides new pipelines for testing species boundaries and for statistically testing the effects of climate change in historical biogeographic studies. The fact that Dolomedes is sensitive to historical climate oscillation also sheds light on understanding how global changes will impact freshwater-associated invertebrates and their habitats in the future.[K.-P. Yu]20252025-12-10 07:16:32Doktorsko delo/naloga176721UDK: 574.9:595.441(043.3)VisID: 272337COBISS_ID: 261110019sl