NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2010

这一行动为2010财年NSF少数民族博士后研究奖学金提供资金，该奖学金是与NSF国际研究员计划共同资助的。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与度的计划。杰森·塞克斯顿的这项研究和培训计划的标题是“新环境中的基因流和生态位宽度：澳大利亚高山植物在预测的气候变化下的适应”。这项研究的主办机构是墨尔本大学，赞助科学家是艾瑞·霍夫曼博士。长期以来，人们一直假设基因流动会影响生态位的广度和新环境中的适应过程。然而，在经验系统中，对基因流动对适应的影响的理解还很少。气候变化预计将导致大量物种灭绝，特别是在高山系统中，那里大量的特有物种几乎没有向上迁徙的空间，必须依赖于原地适应。在澳大利亚东南部的高山环境中，正在进行实地实验，种植来自几个属的植物物种，包括草、莎草和杂草。来自不同距离的实验性基因流动(受控杂交)对遗传变异和适应反应的影响正在当前和实验升温的条件下进行评估，从而能够比较基因流动对跨多个类群和多个地理尺度的生态位宽度的影响。培训目标包括量化自然种群和实验种群的自然选择，进行大规模、多物种气候变化研究，以回答进化和保护生物学中的重要问题，以及科学家和管理小组之间的合作，以实现研究目标并向自然资源管理者和公众传播研究成果。发展对基因流动、遗传多样性和气候适应在高山系统内如何相互作用的理解，可能有助于制定更广泛地针对受地理限制的生物系统的战略，这些生物系统要想持续下去，就必须对人类引起的气候变化造成的环境变化做出反应。

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2010, co-funded with the NSF International Research Fellows Program. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Jason Sexton is "Gene flow and niche breadth in novel environments: Adaptation under predicted climate change in Australian alpine plants." The host institution for this research is University of Melbourne, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Ary Hoffmann.Gene flow has long been hypothesized to affect niche breadth and adaptive processes within novel environments. Yet, the understanding of the effects of gene flow on adaptation in empirical systems is meager. Climate change is predicted to cause much extinction, particularly in alpine systems where high numbers of endemic species have little space to migrate uphill and must rely on in situ adaption. Field experiments are being conducted in alpine environments of southeastern Australia with plant species from several genera, including grasses, sedges, and forbs. The effects of experimental gene flow (controlled crosses) from different distances on genetic variation and adaptive responses are being assessed in current and experimentally warmed conditions, allowing a comparison of the effects of gene flow on niche breadth across multiple taxa and at multiple geographic scales. The training objects include quantifying natural selection in natural and experimental populations, conducting a large-scale, multi-species climate change study to answer important questions in evolutionary and conservation biology, and collaborating among scientists and management groups to achieve research goals and to disseminate research findings to natural resource managers and to the public. Developing an understanding of how gene flow, genetic diversity, and climate adaptation interact within alpine systems may contribute to strategies aimed more broadly at geographically restricted biological systems, which, to persist, must respond to environmental shifts as a result of human-induced climate change.