Collaborative Research: Ant Diversity of the MesoAmerican Corridor (ADMAC)

随着北美和南美洲之间大陆桥的出现，该地区的动物有机会多样化，形成新的生态位。中美洲走廊的蚂蚁尤其成功地在这些新的山脉和植物群落中迅速多样化。该项目将为世界上一个具有重要生物地理意义的地区的这一生态优势昆虫群体绘制一份详细的生物多样性地图。研究人员将在以前蚂蚁生物多样性收集的基础上，应用基因组学中的最新技术来识别物种，并调查地质历史和当代生态因素如何影响热带山区生物多样性的分布。识别物种及其进化关系的基因组方法将彻底改变分类学和生物多样性研究，从而为科学、农业、食品检验、公共卫生和入侵物种检测等领域带来好处。增进对中美洲山地物种起源和分布的了解，对于以证据为基础的保护工作和评估生境转变和气候变化的影响至关重要。生物多样性科学培训将在两所公立大学的研究生和本科生水平上进行。研究人员将与犹他州自然历史博物馆合作，招收理科本科生，并接触更广泛的公众，重点是服务不足的群体和对外联活动的量化评估。

As the land bridge between the North and South America emerged, the fauna of the region had opportunities to diversify into novel ecological niches. The ants of the Mesoamerican corridor were particularly successful in rapidly diversifying over these new mountain ranges and plant communities. This project will develop a detailed biodiversity map for this ecologically dominant group of insects in a biogeographically important region of the world. The investigators will build on previous ant biodiversity collections and apply the latest techniques in genomics to identify species and investigate how geological history and contemporary ecological factors influence the distribution of biodiversity on tropical mountains.Genomic methods for identifying species and their evolutionary relationships will revolutionize taxonomy and biodiversity studies, with subsequent benefits to other fields of science, agriculture, food inspection, public health, and invasive species detection. Improved understanding of the origin and distribution of mountain species within Mesoamerica is critical to evidenced-based conservation efforts and evaluation of the impacts of habitat conversion and climate change. Training in biodiversity science will occur at graduate and undergraduate levels at two public universities. The researchers will partner with the Natural History Museum of Utah to recruit undergraduates to science and reach out to the broader public, with an emphasis on underserved groups and quantifiable assessment of outreach activities.