International Research Fellow Awards Program: Conservation Genetics of Tropical Frogs

0076196克劳福德国际研究员奖计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将为安德鲁·J·克劳福德博士提供24个月的支持，以便与哥斯达黎加大学的费德里科·V·博拉诺斯博士和巴拿马史密森热带研究所的埃尔德里奇·伯明翰博士合作。这个项目涉及热带青蛙的保护遗传学，对于理解这十年来全球青蛙数量和物种的下降非常重要。这项研究的目的是估计遗传侵蚀和动物群崩溃过程影响零散的新热带青蛙种群的空间规模和时间速率。它将回答以下问题：1)在以下因素受到影响之前，栖息地碎片可以减少和隔离到什么程度：a)青蛙丰富度，b)青蛙多样性，c)表型变异，d)种群内遗传变异？2)上述变量随着时间的推移下降的速度有多快？PI将使用DNA“指纹”和DNA测序来解析种群的进化史。这将为热带青蛙动物群的长期生存前景提供分析。博拉诺斯是研究哥斯达黎加两栖动物现状的权威，十多年来一直在监测人口。伯明翰博士是热带脊椎动物遗传学研究的专家。

0076196CrawfordThe International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will provide Dr. Andrew J. Crawford with twenty-four months of support to work with Dr. Federico V. Bolanos at the Universidad de Costa Rica and Dr. Eldredge Bermingham at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.This project involves conservation genetics of tropical frogs, important in understanding this decade's global decline in frog populations and species. The goal of this research is to estimate the spatial scale and temporal rate at which the processes of genetic erosion and faunal collapse affect fragmented populations of Neotropical frogs. It will answer the following questions: 1) How far may habitat fragments be reduced and isolated before the following are affected: a) frog abundance, b) frog diversity, c) phenotypic variation, and d) genetic variation within populations? 2) How quickly do the above variables decline over time? The PIs will use DNA "fingerprinting" and DNA sequencing to resolve evolutionary histories of populations. This will provide an analysis of the long-term survival prospects of a tropical frog fauna.Dr. Bolanos is an authority on the current status of amphibians in Costa Rica and has been monitoring populations for over a decade. Dr. Bermingham is a specialist in genetic studies of tropical vertebrates.