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

该项目审查整个大陆生物多样性方面的差异。收集了关于2,500种西半球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种陆生脊椎动物物种的多样性。第一个是跨时多样性，衡量一个地区物种的遗传独特性。第二个是组成多样性，衡量哪些物种出现在一个地区。第三个是性状多样性，衡量一个地区的物种在地点、食物、时间和大小生态位方面的差异。对于这三个维度中的每一个维度，测量将反映空间上的差异（相异性）。所有数据将在开放获取的数据库中发表。这项研究在代表一个主要物种群体的遗传、分类和功能多样性的新的、半球范围的分析方面具有重要的科学意义。这将有助于确定生物多样性三个方面之间的关系，并通过使用灭绝风险数据，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，因为维度协变的程度将决定其守恒的可能效率。我们的PI机构包括四所大学和非政府组织NatureServe，后者提供了一个将结果纳入保护决策的渠道，并为该项目将雇用的两名博士后助理，三名研究生和约40名本科生提供现实世界的接触。该项目包括通过在巴西、哥斯达黎加、厄瓜多尔和智利举办红色清单讲习班，以及沿着在巴西举行研究协调会议，开展重要的国际能力建设。在国际科学与工程办公室的支持下，学生和PI将在这些会议期间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.