Comparative strategies of ion trafficking and antioxidant physiology in stream insects: A phylogenetic approach

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。水生昆虫扮演着重要的生态角色，由于它们在生物监测计划中的广泛应用而具有重要的实际意义。然而，它们作为生态指标的用途在一定程度上是有限的，因为人们对决定它们对环境挑战作出反应的基本生理过程知之甚少。由于水生昆虫种类繁多，因此不可能进行各种生理实验，以表征物种对常见环境问题的特定反应。本项目将探讨物种的进化亲缘关系是否可以作为其对痕量金属污染反应的生理表现的预测因子。研究的生理系统包括离子调节（钙、锌和镉的通量）和抗氧化生理。这种生态生理学与进化生物学中现代系统发育比较方法的新颖结合，有能力从根本上改变水生昆虫及其对变化环境的反应的研究。传统上，对水生昆虫的研究主要集中在行会学派的方法上，而在很大程度上忽视了生理学。这项研究将根据生理和系统发育对物种的表现进行预测。该项目将扩大代表性不足群体的参与，因为它包括支持来自南方历史最悠久的黑人学院肖大学（Shaw University）的暑期本科生实习生，以及为来自阿巴拉契亚山区农村和印第安人社区的高中生物教师举办讲习班。本工作坊将协助教师发展探究性课程，探索溪流环境中的生态和进化主题。最后，这个项目的结果将广泛地有益于社会，因为水生昆虫通常被用来评估世界范围内地表水的生态状况。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Aquatic insects play critical ecological roles and are of practical importance due to their widespread use in biomonitoring programs. Nevertheless, their use as ecological indicators is limited in part, because the fundamental physiological processes that determine their responses to environmental challenges are poorly understood. Because there are so many aquatic insect species, it is impossible to perform the types of physiological experimentation required to characterize species-specific responses to common environmental problems. This project will explore whether the evolutionary relatedness of species can be used as a predictor of their physiological performance in response to trace metal pollution. The physiological systems under study include ion regulation (fluxes of calcium, zinc and cadmium) and antioxidant physiology. This novel marriage of ecophysiology with modern phylogenetic comparative methods in evolutionary biology has the capacity to fundamentally change the study of aquatic insects and their responses to changing environments. Traditionally, the study of aquatic insects has focused on guild school approaches and has largely ignored physiology. This research will make predictions of species performance based upon both physiology and phylogeny. This program will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups as it includes support for summer undergraduate interns from Shaw University, the oldest Historically Black College in the South, and a workshop for high school biology teachers from rural and Native American communities in the Appalachians. This workshop will assist teachers in the development of inquiry-based programs that explore themes of ecology and evolution in stream environments. Finally, the results of this program will be broadly beneficial to society, as aquatic insects are commonly used to evaluate the ecological conditions of surface waters worldwide.