COEXISTENCE IN STREAM METACOMMUNITIES

这项研究探索了生态和进化过程如何相互作用，以维持自然群落中的物种多样性。经典生态学理论预测，移民可以让那些在资源方面处于不利竞争地位的物种在自然群落中生存，从而维持地区生物多样性。然而，地形、湿度、森林覆盖和其他景观条件导致当地社区之间的移民率不同。这些地貌条件还应该通过在基因流中产生变化来影响物种的局部适应。因此，物种内适应和迁徙的差异对于理解生物多样性的格局可能与物种之间的差异一样重要。这个项目的目标是了解物种之间的局部适应和竞争性相互作用如何受到物种内移民和基因流动的变化的影响。这项研究将检验这样一种假设，即物种共存和由此产生的复杂景观中的生物多样性格局是基因流动和移民人口效应相互作用、适应效应的产物。这个项目将集中在两种溪流火蜥蜴上，对它们的生态相互作用有很多先前的研究，但对移民和基因流动对物种共存的影响知之甚少。这两个研究物种一起出现在阿巴拉契亚山脉，尽管竞争能力存在很大差异，之前的研究已经证明了景观对两个物种的迁徙和基因流动的影响。该项目将创建OPEnBio：环境生物学中的机会和前景，这是一个专业的职业探索计划，利用新英格兰和落基山脉北部环境生物学领域的人员和机构的多样性。将在这两个地区提供实习机会，以吸引美国印第安人本科生，他们将认识不同的榜样，并参与各种研究、应用和推广的方法。通过相关的课程和与其他多样性项目的链接，OPEnBio将增加对未被充分代表的学生的留存，向他们展示科学的不同视角，并扩大传统生态知识在环境生物学中的应用。

This research explores how ecological and evolutionary processes interact to maintain species diversity in natural communities. Classic ecological theory predicts that immigration can allow species that are poor competitors for resources to persist in natural communities, thereby maintaining regional biodiversity. However, topography, moisture, forest cover, and other landscape conditions cause variation in rates of immigration among local communities. These landscape conditions should also influence local adaptation of species by creating variation in gene flow. Therefore, differences in adaptation and immigration within species may be as important for understanding patterns of biodiversity as differences among species. The goal of this project is to understand how local adaptation and competitive interactions among species are affected by variation in immigration and gene flow within species. This research will test the hypothesis that species coexistence and the resulting pattern of biodiversity in complex landscapes are products of the interactive, adaptive effects of gene flow and the demographic effects of immigration. This project will focus on two species of stream salamander for which there is much prior research on their ecological interactions, but little is known about the effects of immigration and gene flow on species coexistence. The two study species occur together throughout the Appalachian Mountains despite a large difference in competitive ability, and previous studies have documented landscape effects on immigration and gene flow in both species. This project will create OPEnBio: Opportunities and Perspectives in Environmental Biology, a professional career exploration program that capitalizes on the diversity of people and institutions in environmental biology in New England and the Northern Rockies. Internships will be offered in both regions to attract American Indian undergraduates, who will get to know diverse role models and engage in a variety of approaches to research, application, and outreach. Through related coursework and links to other diversity programs, OPEnBio will increase retention of underrepresented students, show them diverse perspectives in science, and expand the use of traditional ecological knowledge in environmental biology.