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和持续的过程。作为对统一物种概念的经验研究，这项研究试图了解物种形成的证据是如何随着时间的推移而积累的，并量化特征进化的速度和模式，以推断是否存在获得物种属性的顺序或序列，以及特定属性是否在其进化史上的特定时间或深度比其他属性更重要。此外，画笔是北美西部最具象征意义的野花类群之一，但也是分类学上最困难的类群之一；这项研究将提供必要的进化框架来研究物种划分，并创建一个稳定和有用的属下分类，以帮助物种鉴定、未来的发现和保护。此外，拟议的工作将批判性地评估多样性的进化和生态相关性，从而能够发现外部(例如地理和/或生态)和内在(例如多倍体和/或形态)隔离机制在多大程度上导致多样性比率增加，并增加我们对北美西部异质山区物种形成过程的理解。该项目还整合了生物多样性科学中多个子学科的教育和培训(例如，从分子系统学到植物学研究)和跨多个教育水平(从K-12到博士后)。显然，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。生物多样性科学为自然界增加了丰富的纹理，这里建议的高级野外植物学课程将满足日益增长的对植物学专业知识的需求，为学生提供重要的职业机会，并加强爱达荷大学的植物学教育和研究。此外，与爱达荷大学麦考尔户外科学学院(MOSS)教职员工和研究生的合作将确保这些植物学知识流向每年参加MOSS教育和培训计划的2000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.