CAREER: Correlates of diversification and the investigation of the accumulation of evidence for speciation: phylogeny and systematics of a rapid and recent radiation

进化生物学家普遍认为，物种形成是一个渐进而持续的过程。作为统一物种概念的实证研究，本研究旨在了解物种形成的证据是如何随着时间的推移而积累的，并量化了Castilleja属植物北美组的性状进化的克里思和模式（画笔）推断是否存在获得物种特性的顺序或序列，以及在进化史的某个时期或某个深度，特定的属性是否比其他属性更重要。此外，漆刷是北美西部最具象征性的野花群之一，但也是分类学上最困难的群体之一;这项研究将提供必要的进化框架，以调查物种划界，并创建一个稳定和有用的属下分类，以帮助物种识别，未来的发现和保护。此外，拟议的工作将批判性地评估多样化的进化和生态相关性，允许发现外部因素在多大程度上影响多样化。（例如地理和/或生态）和内在的（例如多倍体和/或形态学）分离机制导致增加的多样化率，并增加我们对北美西部异质山区物种形成过程的理解。该项目还将教育和培训整合在一起，生物多样性科学的多个分支学科（例如从分子系统学到植物区系研究）和多个教育层次（从K-12到博士后）。很明显，联邦土地管理和科学机构正面临着植物学专业知识的严重短缺，这将降低我们未来保护自然景观的能力。在纹理中发现的丰富性，生物多样性科学添加到自然世界是在这里提出的高级野外植物学课程将填补这种日益增长的需要植物学专业知识，为学生提供重要的职业机会，并加强植物学教育和研究在爱达荷州的大学。此外，与爱达荷州麦考尔户外科学学校（MOSS）教师和研究生的大学合作将确保这种植物学知识流向每年参加MOSS教育和培训计划的2,000多名K-12学生和200多名教师。

It is widely accepted among evolutionary biologists that speciation is a gradual and constant process. As an empirical investigation of the unified species concept, this study seeks to understand how the evidence for speciation has accumulated over time, and to quantify the tempo and mode of trait evolution, in the North American group of the plant genus Castilleja (the paintbrushes) inferring if there is an order or a sequence for the acquisition of species properties, and if specific properties are more important than others at a certain times or depths in their evolutionary history. Additionally, paintbrushes are one of the most emblematic groups of wildflowers in western North America, but are also one of the most taxonomically difficult; this study will provide the evolutionary framework necessary to investigate species delimitation, and create a stable and useful infrageneric classification to aid in species identification, future discovery, and conservation. Furthermore, the proposed work will critically evaluate the evolutionary and ecological correlates of diversification, allowing for the discovery of the extent to which extrinsic (e.g. geography and/or ecology) and intrinsic (e.g. polyploidy and/or morphology) isolating mechanisms lead to increased diversification rates, and increase our understanding of the process of speciation in the heterogeneous mountains of western North America.This project also integrates education and training across multiple subdisciplines in the biodiversity sciences (e.g. from molecular systematics to floristic research) and across multiple educational levels (from K-12 to postdoc). It is clear that federal land management and science agencies are facing a significant shortage of botanical expertise that will reduce our ability to conserve natural landscapes in the future. The richness found in the texture that the biodiversity sciences add to the natural world is where the Advanced Field Botany course proposed here will fill this growing need for botanical expertise, provide significant career opportunities to students, and enhance botanical education and research at the University of Idaho. Moreover, the collaborations with University of Idaho McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS) faculty and graduate students will ensure that this botanical knowledge flows to the more than 2,000 K-12 students and 200+ teachers that participate in MOSS education and training programs each year.