NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2010

该行动资助了2010财年NSF少数民族博士后研究奖学金，与NSF国际研究人员计划共同资助。该奖学金支持奖学金获得者在主办实验室的研究和培训计划，该奖学金获得者还提出了扩大生物学参与的计划。这项奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是“新环境中的基因流动和生态位宽度：澳大利亚高山植物在预测气候变化下的适应”。这项研究的主办机构是墨尔本大学，赞助科学家是Ary Hoffmann博士。长期以来，人们一直假设基因流会影响生态位宽度和新环境中的适应过程。然而，在经验系统中，对基因流对适应的影响的理解是贫乏的。据预测，气候变化将导致大量物种灭绝，特别是在高山系统中，大量特有物种几乎没有向山上迁移的空间，必须依靠就地适应。目前正在澳大利亚东南部的高山环境中进行实地试验，试验的植物种类来自几个属，包括禾草、莎草和草本植物。在当前和实验变暖的条件下，评估了不同距离的实验基因流（控制杂交）对遗传变异和适应性反应的影响，从而比较了基因流对多个分类群和多个地理尺度上生态位宽度的影响。培训对象包括量化自然种群和实验种群的自然选择，进行大规模的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，以及在科学家和管理团体之间开展合作，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。了解基因流动、遗传多样性和气候适应如何在高山系统内相互作用，可能有助于制定更广泛地针对地理上受限制的生物系统的策略，这些生物系统要想持续存在，就必须对人类引起的气候变化所导致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.