Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology for FY 2009

这项行动为2009财政年度的NSF博士后研究奖学金提供资金。该研究金支持Jason Brown的一项研究和培训计划，题为“将物种分布模型、地理信息系统和联合系统发生方法纳入生物地理学研究”。这项研究的主办机构是密歇根大学，赞助科学家是莱西·诺尔斯。整合物种分布模型，基于聚结的生物遗传学和地理信息系统提供了一个新的视角，可以大大提高我们对当前和历史物种分布模式的理解。 更好地了解这些因素对于两栖动物（本项目的重点类群）的保护尤为重要，其中许多在过去的四分之一世纪中急剧下降。 物种分布模型是使用各种气候和地理变量（例如温度，降雨量）预测物种分布的计算方法。 由此产生的模型生成一个栖息地适宜性地图的基础上物种的生态容忍度，表明高和低的适合性。这使得物种分布被视为适宜和不适宜栖息地的梯度，从而更准确地反映了特定景观的扩散潜力。 利用这些“扩散景观”，基于聚结的遗传学和地理信息系统，本研究（1）估计系谱谱系之间的现实扩散网络，然后可以用来估计每个目标物种在几个时期的关键扩散路线，和（2）使用修改后的“分散景观”在不同时期测试地理学假设。培训和教育目标包括计算机编程，理论地理学和假设检验，联合遗传学，继续发展地理信息系统方面的专门知识，特别强调发展一种严格和有凝聚力的方法来评估物种扩散网络，并进行可靠性的统计检验。这项研究的更广泛的影响是更好地了解物种分布，以考虑在保护和恢复项目。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2009. The fellowship supports a research and training plan entitled "Integrating species distribution models, Geographic Information Systems and coalescent phylogenetic methods into phylogeography studies" for Jason Brown. The host institution for this research is the University of Michigan, and the sponsoring scientist is Lacey Knowles.Integrating species distribution models, coalescent-based phylogenies and geographic information systems provides a novel perspective on biogeography and could substantially improve our understanding of current and historic species distribution patterns. A better understanding of these factors is particularly important for the conservation of amphibians (the focal taxa of this project), many of which have dramatically declined in the past quarter-century. Species distribution models are calculations that predict the distribution of a species using various climatic and geographic variables (e.g. temperature, rainfall). The resulting model generates a habitat suitability map based on a species' ecological tolerance, indicating areas of high and low suitability. This allows species distributions to be treated as gradients of suitable and unsuitable habitat; thereby more accurately reflecting the dispersal potential across particular landscapes. Using these "dispersal landscapes," coalescent-based phylogenies and geographic information systems, this research (1) estimates realistic dispersal networks between genealogical lineages, which can then be used to estimate key dispersal routes for each target species at several periods in time, and (2) uses modified "dispersal landscapes" to test biogeographic hypotheses at different periods in time.The training and education objectives in include computer programming, theoretical biogeography and hypothesis testing, coalescent phylogenetics, and a continued development of expertise in Geographic Information Systems, with particular emphasis on the development of a rigorous and cohesive method for evaluating species dispersal networks, and statistical tests of reliability. The broader impacts of this research are to better understand species distributions for consideration in conservation and restoration projects.