Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Integrating genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity of tetrapods across the Americas and through extinction risk

该项目考察了整个大陆范围内生物多样性方面的差异。收集了关于西半球2500种爬行动物物种的生物多样性和灭绝风险的新数据。这些数据与哺乳动物、鸟类和两栖动物的现有数据相结合，以三维方式测量和绘制美洲所有13,000种陆生脊椎动物的多样性。第一个是植物-时间多样性，衡量一个地区物种的遗传独特性。第二个是组成多样性，衡量一个地区有哪些物种。第三个是特征多样性，衡量一个地区的物种在地点、食物、时间和大小生态位上的差异。对于这三个维度中的每一个，衡量标准都将反映出空间上的差异(不同)。所有数据都将发布在开放获取的数据库中。这项研究对于展示对一个主要物种群体的遗传、分类和功能多样性的新的、全半球的分析具有重要的科学意义。这将能够确定生物多样性三个维度之间的关系，并通过使用灭绝风险数据来预测这些关系即将发生的变化。这些分析具有重要的实际意义，因为维度的协变程度将决定其守恒可能的效率。我们的公益机构由四所大学和非政府组织NatureServe组成，后者提供了将成果纳入保护决策的渠道，并为项目将雇用的两名博士后助理、三名研究生和大约40名本科生提供了现实世界的接触。该项目包括通过在巴西、哥斯达黎加、厄瓜多尔和智利举办的红名单讲习班以及在巴西举行的研究协调会议进行重大的国际能力建设。在这些会议期间，学生和专业人员将在国际科学和工程办公室的支持下与国内科学家进行旅行和合作。

This project examines continent-wide variation in the dimensions of biodiversity. New data are collected on the biodiversity and extinction risk of 2,500 Western Hemisphere reptile species. These data are combined with existing data for mammals, birds, and amphibians to measure and map the diversity of all 13,000 terrestrial vertebrate species of the Americas, in three dimensions. The first is phylo-temporal diversity, measuring the genetically distinctiveness of the species in an area. The second is compositional diversity, measuring which species occur in an area. And the third is trait diversity, measuring how the species in an area vary in place, food, time, and size niches. For each of the three dimensions, measures will reflect differences over space (dissimilarity). All data will be published in open access databases.The research is important scientifically in representing novel, hemisphere-wide analysis of the genetic, taxonomic, and functional diversity of a major species group. This will allow determination of relationships among the three dimensions of biodiversity, and, by using the extinction risk data, prediction of impending changes in these relationships. These analyses have important practical implications, because the degree to which the dimensions covary will determine the efficiency possible in their conservation. Our PI institutions comprise four universities and the non-governmental organization NatureServe, the latter of which provides a channel for incorporation of results into conservation decisions, as well as providing real-world exposure to the two postdoctoral associates, and three graduate and approximately 40 undergraduate students, who the project will employ. The project includes significant international capacity building through Red List workshops in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Chile, along with research coordination meetings in Brazil. Both students and PIs will be traveling and collaborating with in-country scientists during these meetings, with support provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering.