Collaborative Research: Human-induced Phenotypic Variation in an Endemic Livebearing Fish

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。人类活动造成的生境破碎化和退化是对生物多样性最严重的威胁之一。近年来，我们对人类活动的生态效应的认识取得了重大进展，然而，人类引起的环境变化对进化的影响在很大程度上仍然是未知的。这个研究项目将调查巴哈马群岛一群小鱼的栖息地破碎化的影响。这项工作结合了实地调查、体型/肌肉组织分析、整体有机体性能试验、实验室饲养实验和DNA研究，以检验生态系统碎片化是否驱动了体型和游泳性能的可预测和快速进化。河口碎裂在巴哈马群岛很普遍。这种破碎是由于道路建设没有有效的潮汐流输送结构，如桥梁或涵洞。由此产生的对这些沿海系统的迅速而剧烈的变化导致了对居住生物的自然选择制度的实质性改变的预测。本研究将以巴哈马特有鱼类为研究对象，利用进化理论来发展和测试关于物种特征在碎片化后变化的预测。这项工作将测试在面对人为影响时进化的可预测性，以及生态恢复工作恢复以前进化轨迹的能力。这个项目将以多种方式将科学与教育结合起来。除了培训至少七名本科生外，这项工作还将创建一个新的外展项目。日常进化。该项目将与巴哈马一所高中的科学课程相结合，希望能开创一个更长期、更广泛的教育模块，向高中生教授生态学和进化的基础知识。由于大多数公众对进化的了解如此之少，现在是展示自然过程如何导致快速进化，以及进化生态学家如何严格检验清晰的假设的最佳时机。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).One of the most critical threats to biological diversity is the habitat fragmentation and degradation caused by human activities. Significant advances in our understanding of the ecological effects of human activities have been made in recent years, however the evolutionary impacts of human-induced environmental changes are still largely unknown. This research program will investigate the effects of habitat fragmentation in a group of small fish in the Bahamas. The work combines field surveys, analysis of body form/musculature, whole-organism performance trials, laboratory-rearing experiments, and DNA studies to examine whether ecosystem fragmentation drives predictable and rapid evolution of body form and swimming performance.Estuary fragmentation is widespread in the Bahamas. This fragmentation results from construction of roads without effective tidal flow-conveyance structures, such as bridges or culverts. The resulting rapid and dramatic changes to these coastal systems leads to predictions of substantially altered natural selection regimes for resident organisms. This study will use evolutionary theory to develop and test predictions regarding changes in species traits following fragmentation, centering on endemic fishes, Bahamas Gambusia. The work will test the predictability of evolution in the face of anthropogenic impacts, as well as the ability of ecological restoration efforts to restore previous evolutionary trajectories. This project will integrate science and education in a variety of ways. In addition to training at least seven undergraduate students, the work will create a new outreach program, ?Everyday Evolution.? This program will be integrated with the science curriculum of a Bahamian high school, hopefully initiating a longer-term, and more wide-reaching educational module designed to teach the fundamentals of ecology and evolution to high-school students. With an understanding of evolution so low for much of the general public, there is no better time to demonstrate how natural processes can lead to rapid evolution, and how evolutionary ecologists rigorously test well-articulated hypotheses.