US - Uruguay Planning Visit: Ampullariid Model using Phylogenetics, Laboratory Inquiry and Field Investigations into Ecology and Distribution

这项美国-乌拉圭和巴西计划访问提案将在Romi Burks博士的指导下，支持一名初级和两名高级研究人员以及两名来自美国的本科生计划于2010年11月访问乌拉圭和巴西。这次计划访问将使来自美国、乌拉圭和巴西的苹果蜗牛研究人员聚集在一起，分享最近的研究进展，集思广益，讨论互补的研究问题，并撰写一份完整的IRES提案，将本科生纳入他们的项目。该团队融合了来自博物馆（蒙得维得亚自然历史博物馆、史密森学会）、研究型大学（夏威夷大学、República大学、巴西奥斯瓦尔多克鲁兹研究所）和本科院校（西南大学）的专业知识，创造了多样化的学生研究经验，重点关注生物学的三个分支学科：系统发育学、传记和生态学。研究主题包括量化这一未被充分研究的群体的遗传变异，确定物种形成模式，确定生殖潜力，然后假设范围扩大的影响。此次访问将包括一名早期研究人员和两名学生。它有可能产生一个更大的国际项目，这将使学生获得苹果蜗牛的多种收集和存档技术的经验，同时与乌拉圭和巴西的研究人员建立国际合作伙伴关系。

This U.S. - Uruguay and Brazil Planning Visit proposals will support one junior and two senior researchers and two undergraduate students from the U.S., under the direction of Dr. Romi Burks, on a planning visit to Uruguay and Brazil in November 2010. This planning visit will result in apple snail investigators from the United States, Uruguay and Brazil meeting together, sharing recent research developments, brainstorming complementary research questions and writing a full IRES proposal that incorporates undergraduates into their program. The team blends expertise from museums (Natural History Museum of Montevideo, Smithsonian Institute), research universities (University of Hawaii, Universidad de la República, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz in Brazil) and an undergraduate institution (Southwestern University) to create diverse student research experiences focused on three sub-disciplines of biology: namely phylogenetics, biography and ecology. The research topics include quantifying genetic variation in this understudied group, identifying patterns of speciation, determining reproductive potential and then hypothesizing about range expansion implications.The visit will involve one early-career researcher and two students. It has the potential to generate a larger international program, which will allow students to gain experience in multiple collection and archiving techniques for apple snails while forging international partnerships with Uruguayan and Brazilian investigators.