Collaborative Research: Unraveling evolutionary processes in avian species distributed across the Southern African arid-zone

合作研究：揭示分布在南部非洲干旱区的鸟类物种的进化过程

• 批准号: 1119931
• 负责人: Gary Voelker
• 金额: $ 21.5万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-01 至 2015-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1119931&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Unraveling; evolutionary; processes

Arid ecosystems cover one third of Earth's land surface, and many have levels of endemism as high as tropical biomes. Despite supporting a rich biodiversity, arid ecosystems are generally overlooked as models for investigating evolutionary processes. The southern Africa region is characterized by a high interior plateau bounded on three sides by a steep escarpment, the presence of a west-to-east gradient of increasing moisture, and hyper-arid to humid habitats. This complex topography and climatic variation is reflected at the landscape level with seven distinct vegetation types or biomes. Despite a large number of endemic species (the greatest regional concentration in Africa), the role of evolutionary, ecological and climatic processes in shaping bird population histories has been sorely neglected in southern African arid ecosystems. This proposal aims to understand the processes that have driven the diversification of 12 bird taxa in the southern African arid zone by fully utilizing the tools provided by molecular ecology and species-distribution modelling. A collaboration between the University of California-Berkeley, Texas A&M University, and several southern African institutions -- including universities, museums and conservation agencies -- this proposal will include the training and exchange of graduate and postdoctoral scholars, and involve undergraduate students in research.

干旱生态系统覆盖了地球陆地表面的三分之一，其中许多生态系统的特有程度与热带生物群落一样高。尽管支持丰富的生物多样性，干旱生态系统作为研究进化过程的模型通常被忽视。南部非洲地区的特点是高内陆高原，三边以陡峭的悬崖为界，存在从西到东的湿度梯度增加，以及从极度干旱到潮湿的栖息地。这种复杂的地形和气候变化反映在景观层面上，有七种不同的植被类型或生物群落。尽管有大量特有物种（非洲最集中的区域），但在南部非洲干旱生态系统中，进化、生态和气候过程在塑造鸟类种群历史中的作用却被严重忽视。该提案旨在充分利用分子生态学和物种分布模型提供的工具，了解推动南部非洲干旱地区 12 种鸟类类群多样化的过程。 该提案是加州大学伯克利分校、德克萨斯农工大学和几所南部非洲机构（包括大学、博物馆和保护机构）之间的合作，将包括研究生和博士后学者的培训和交流，并让本科生参与研究。