FESD Type I: The Dynamics of Mountains, Landscapes and Climate in the Distribution and Generation of Biodiversity of the Amazon/Andean Forest

热带南美洲的森林拥有地球上一些最高的生物多样性。在这个项目中，一个由地质学家、气候学家和生物学家组成的跨学科团队将利用各自学科的最新进展，对气候和地质学如何相互作用，随着时间的推移塑造亚马逊/安第斯森林中生物多样性的分布和生成产生综合理解。亚马逊和安第斯山脉是一个动态链接的高度互动的系统。在长时间尺度上，安第斯山脉的抬升会影响亚马逊的气候和水文。安第斯隆起还产生了邻近亚马逊低地盆地的沉积物填充、养分供应、河流路线和土壤组成，因此影响了其森林的生产力。但这种相互作用是双向的，因为气候、水文和沉积物供应的变化通过风化和侵蚀产生的均衡(浮力)效应影响抬升速率。多个系统组成部分共同以复杂的方式相互作用，影响新物种的起源和消亡，从而决定生物多样性。今天，这种生物多样性受到全球气候变化和其他人类活动的威胁。例如，一个新出现的重大威胁是计划中的水源大坝建设，这将切断从安第斯山脉到亚马逊的营养物质转移，并影响其森林和水道的生产力和多样性。因此，比以往任何时候都更需要更好地了解促进生物多样性进化和维持的因素。该项目是一项跨学科的努力，联合了来自北美和南美的科学家。它将通过整合实地考察、实验室研究和建模，支持本科生、研究生和博士后科学家在这一令人兴奋的新领域的教育、培训和指导。在量化外力(例如气候、构造、水文学)和观察到的物种随时间的分布之间的关系之前，首先需要生成潜在地质和气候过程的准确年代历史，并探索环境如何影响多样性的支配规则。跨学科小组将对相连的安第斯-亚马逊系统的系统组成部分的关键方面进行新的详细的野外和实验室调查，重点是：(1)确定安第斯山脉隆起的历史，特别是在经常被忽视的西科迪莱拉；(2)首次尝试重建亚马逊西部低地新生代古气候的完整历史；(3)在关键的新生代时间片上进行同位素海洋-大气气候模拟；(4)精心挑选木本植物分类群的分子遗传学，以检验关于隆起和气候在多样性产生中的作用的几个基本假设；(5)建立一个将古地形、气候、水文和养分循环与植物特征、生产力、生态位和物种分布联系起来的综合模型框架(包含有关隆起、气候和生物群的新数据)。最终目的是了解环境和环境历史在种群遗传分化和新物种起源中的作用。通过破译环境如何影响生物多样性，以及反过来，植物物种的遗传序列如何编码物理环境的历史，可以预见，分子系统学将为地质历史提供信息，就像古生物学为地层和古环境解释提供信息一样，一个新的“地理基因组学”领域将出现。

The forests of tropical South America host some of the highest biodiversity on Earth. In this project, an interdisciplinary team of geologists, climatologists, and biologists will take advantage of recent advances in their respective disciplines to develop an integrated understanding of how climate and geology interact to shape the distribution and generation of biodiversity in these Amazon/Andean forests through time. The Amazon and Andes are a dynamically linked highly interactive system. On long timescales, uplift of the Andes affects Amazon climate and hydrology. Andean uplift also generates the sediment fill, nutrient supply, river routing, and soil composition of the adjacent lowland basin of the Amazon and hence affects the productivity of its forests. But the interactions are bi-directional, because changes in climate, hydrology, and sediment supply influence rates of uplift through isostatic (buoyancy) effects produced by weathering and erosion. Together the multiple system components interact in complex ways to effect the origin and demise of new species and thus determine biodiversity. Today, this biodiversity is threatened by global climate change and other human activities. For example, a major emerging threat is the planned construction of headwater dams that will sever the transfer of nutrients from the Andes to the Amazon and impact the productivity and diversity of its forests and waterways. Thus, more than ever, there is a need for better understanding of the factors that foster the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. The project is an interdisciplinary effort that unites scientists from both North and South America. It will support the education, training, and mentoring of undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral scientists at this exciting new frontier through the integration of fieldwork, laboratory studies, and modeling.Before it is possible to quantify relationships between extrinsic forcings (e.g. climate, tectonics, hydrology) and the observed distribution of species through time, it is first necessary to generate accurately dated histories of the underlying geologic and climatic processes and to explore the governing rules for how environment influences diversity. The interdisciplinary team will undertake new detailed field and laboratory investigations of key aspects of the system components of the linked Andes-Amazon system, emphasizing: (1) determination of the history of Andean uplift, particularly in the oft-overlooked Western Cordillera; (2) a first attempt at reconstruction of a complete history of Cenozoic paleoclimate in the western Amazon lowlands; (3) isotope-enabled ocean-atmosphere climate modeling at key Cenozoic time slices; (4) molecular genetics of woody plant taxa carefully chosen to test several fundamental hypotheses about the role of uplift and climate in generation of diversity; (5) construction of an over-arching modeling framework (that incorporates new data on uplift, climate, and biota) linking paleo-topography, climate, hydrology, and nutrient cycling to plant traits, productivity, ecologic niche, and species distribution. The ultimate goal is to understand the role of environment and environmental history in genetic differentiation of populations and the origins of new species. By deciphering how environment affects biodiversity and, conversely, how genetic sequences of plant species encode the history of the physical environment, it is envisioned that molecular phylogenetics will inform geological history, much like paleontology informs stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental interpretation, and a new field of "geo-genomics" will emerge.