DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Historical and ecological causes of ant diversity along environmental gradients

论文研究：环境梯度上蚂蚁多样性的历史和生态原因

• 批准号: 0910084
• 负责人: Nathan Sanders
• 金额: $ 0.82万
• 依托单位: University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0910084&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Historical; ecological; causes

Biodiversity is distributed unevenly on the planet. Scientists have focused primarily on current climatic conditions as main drivers of diversity, while the importance of evolutionary processes has received less attention. The proposed research project aims to gain a better understanding of the role of evolutionary history in shaping current patterns of ant diversity in North America. The increased availability of molecular information allows a clearer understanding of evolutionary history and relationships among ant species. In turn this information can be used to examine the history of dispersal and colonization of populations over geological time scales. This work benefits from the availability of a large and newly compiled database on the distributions and diversity of ants, as well as the availability of a recently published phylogeny of ants, to gain new insights into the factors governing ant diversity. The proposed work entails collaboration with the Danish Center for Macroecology (DCM). The DCM is involved with Danish and International NGOs as well as with organizations such as UN/UNEP and the World Bank. Ecologists at the DCM also act as science advisors to the Danish parliament on issues relating to biodiversity and climate change. Therefore, the results of the proposed work will have impact beyond the scientific community in the US.

生物多样性在地球上分布不均。科学家们主要关注当前的气候条件是生物多样性的主要驱动力，而进化过程的重要性却没有得到太多关注。这项拟议的研究项目旨在更好地了解进化史在北美蚂蚁多样性当前格局形成中的作用。分子信息的增加使人们能够更清楚地了解蚂蚁物种之间的进化历史和关系。反过来，这些信息可以用来检查人口在地质时间尺度上的扩散和殖民历史。这项工作得益于新汇编的关于蚂蚁分布和多样性的大型数据库的可获得性，以及最近公布的蚂蚁系统发育史的可获得性，以获得对支配蚂蚁多样性的因素的新见解。拟议的工作需要与丹麦宏观生态中心(DCM)合作。DCM与丹麦和国际非政府组织以及联合国/环境署和世界银行等组织合作。DCM的生态学家还在与生物多样性和气候变化有关的问题上担任丹麦议会的科学顾问。因此，这项拟议工作的结果将产生超出美国科学界的影响。