Determining Species-Specific Seed Shadows Using Molecular Genetic Methods

使用分子遗传学方法确定物种特异性种子阴影

• 批准号: 0304909
• 负责人: Bette Loiselle
• 金额: $ 3.88万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Saint Louis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-01-15 至 2004-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0304909&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Determining; Species; Specific; Seed; Shadows

Intellectual Merit: Measuring and analyzing seed dissemination into the environment is considered a major limitation in seed dispersal and plant recruitment studies. To date, seed shadows have been based on data collected from radio-tracked animals or from seed traps. In the former method, seed shadows are probalistic as dissemination is based on average gut passage times and distance moved during some time period, but data do not provide a means to evaluate species-specific differences in animal-generated seed shadows. In the latter case, seed rain provides a direct measure of seed arrival into microenvironments, although the contribution of different animal dispersers is not possible to discern. Dissecting out individual ecological roles of animal dispersers is necessary to understand the evolutionary impacts of seed dispersers on plant demography. This SGER proposal investigates a new method for directly measuring species-specific seed dissemination by birds using molecular markers and fecal samples. Fresh bird droppings that contain seeds are readily found in forest environments or collected in seed traps. In this exploratory research project we will collect fecal samples containing seeds from known species of birds (i.e., captured birds) and conduct genetic analyses on the bird dropping to get a "species signal". This preliminary work is necessary to test the ability of detecting microsatellite markers from bird droppings. Without sufficient evidence that this novel technique will function, any proposal relyingon this method to examine interspecific differences in seed dispersal function by birds is unlikely to be successful. If successful, this technique could revolutionize our studies on seed-dispersal efficiency in tropical lowland forests as it would provide a means to directly study seed dissemination into microenvironments that differ in seed and seedling establishment conditions. The application of this novel technique would allow us, for the first time, to develop the critical link between seed disperser behavior and plant demography, and thus, provide the key empirical data to determine the influence of animals on plant demography.Broader Impact: The proposed research effectively combines the ecological,behavioral, and molecular genetic expertise of the principal investigators and provides an avenue for new collaborative research that will enhance research programs of each senior investigator. If we can successfully develop the methods to obtain species signals using molecular genetic data from bird fecal samples, this method will likely become adopted by many researchers and applied to a wide range of ecological, population, and behavioral studies. Field and laboratory components of the research program will also provide key opportunities for a student from UM-St. Louis and from Latin America to gain research experience.

智力价值：测量和分析种子传播到环境中被认为是种子传播和植物招募研究的主要限制。迄今为止，种子阴影是基于从无线电追踪动物或种子陷阱收集的数据。在前一种方法中，种子阴影是概率性的，因为传播是基于平均肠道通过时间和在一段时间内移动的距离，但数据并不能提供评估动物产生的种子阴影的物种特异性差异的手段。在后一种情况下，种子雨提供了种子到达微环境的直接测量，尽管不可能辨别不同动物传播者的贡献。分析动物传播者的个体生态作用对于理解种子传播者对植物种群的进化影响是必要的。本研究提出了一种利用分子标记和粪便样本直接测量鸟类物种特异性种子传播的新方法。含有种子的新鲜鸟粪很容易在森林环境中找到或在种子陷阱中收集。在这个探索性研究项目中，我们将收集已知鸟类（即捕获的鸟类）含有种子的粪便样本，并对鸟类粪便进行基因分析，以获得“物种信号”。这项初步工作对于测试从鸟类粪便中检测微卫星标记物的能力是必要的。如果没有足够的证据表明这种新技术将起作用，任何依赖于这种方法来研究鸟类种子传播功能的种间差异的建议都不太可能成功。如果成功，该技术将为我们在热带低地森林种子传播效率的研究带来革命性的变化，因为它将提供一种直接研究种子在不同种子和幼苗建立条件的微环境中的传播的方法。这项新技术的应用将使我们首次建立种子传播行为与植物种群统计之间的关键联系，从而为确定动物对植物种群统计的影响提供关键的经验数据。更广泛的影响：拟议的研究有效地结合了主要研究人员的生态学，行为学和分子遗传学专业知识，并为新的合作研究提供了一条途径，这将加强每个高级研究人员的研究计划。如果我们能够成功地开发出利用鸟类粪便样本的分子遗传数据获取物种信号的方法，这种方法将有可能被许多研究人员采用，并广泛应用于生态、种群和行为研究。研究项目的现场和实验室部分也将为来自UM-St的学生提供重要的机会。路易斯从拉丁美洲来获得研究经验。