NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology

这一行动为NSF 2008财年博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持约书亚·A·德鲁的一项研究和培训计划，该计划题为《珊瑚三角鱼类的系统发育和生物地理模式：生命百科全书中的生物多样性模式图解》。这项研究的主办机构是芝加哥菲尔德博物馆，赞助科学家是马克·韦斯特内特博士。印度-太平洋的珊瑚礁是世界上物种多样性最大的家园。那么多物种是如何在那里进化的，仍然是海洋生物多样性研究的核心问题之一。这项研究正在研究印度-太平洋地区物种数量的增加是由于本土的多样性，还是由于从中太平洋或印度洋等其他地区进口的物种。为了找出这种多样性的起源，这项研究正在为两种高度不同的鱼类群体构建一棵“家谱”。物种的起源(无论是原产于印度-太平洋还是来自其他地区)取决于物种落在树上的位置。培训目标包括分析大数据丰富的核苷酸矩阵和使用基于网络的数据库的计算技术。由于印度-太平洋的海洋生物多样性面临着从过度捕捞到气候变化等多种威胁，这些前沿信息正被提供给最广泛的利益攸关方，包括直接提供给印度-太平洋的管理者，他们需要做出必要的保护决定，以便明智地管理这些高度多样化的珊瑚礁。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2008. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Patterns of Coral Triangle Fishes: Illustrating Biodiversity Patterns in the Encyclopedia of Life" for Joshua A. Drew. The host institution for this research is the Field Museum of Chicago, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Mark Westneat. The coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific are home to the greatest diversity of species in the world. How so many species have evolved there remains one of the central questions of marine biodiversity studies. This research is looking at whether the high number of species in the Indo-Pacific is due to home grown diversity or due to imports from other regions such as the central Pacific or Indian Ocean. To figure out where this diversity originates this research is building a "family tree" for two highly diverse groups of fishes. The origin of the species (whether native to the Indo-Pacific or from other regions) is determined depending on where the species falls on the tree. Training objectives include computational techniques for analyzing large data rich nucleotide matrices and using web-based databases. Since marine biodiversity in the Indo-Pacific is under several threats ranging from over-fishing to climate change, this cutting edge information is being brought to the widest number of stakeholders, including being presented directly to the managers in the Indo-Pacific who need to make the conservation decisions necessary to wisely manage these highly diverse coral reefs.