DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The consequences of natural and anthropogenic geographic range expansion

今天的一个重大科学挑战是了解生物入侵对环境变化的反应的后果。这项拟议的研究使用了有关海洋文蛤和蜗牛的化石和现代数据，以比较沿其原生海岸扩大地理范围的物种的进化变化，以及在(意外或故意)人类帮助下越过大洋盆地的入侵物种的变化。这项研究将评估可能带来扩张优势的生物特征(例如，身体大小)，分析在本土扩张和入侵扩张中来源和殖民区域之间贝壳形状的变化，并通过实验评估遗传进化对这种贝壳形状变化的贡献。最后，本研究试图通过与本土扩张和入侵扩张的比较来了解海洋系统中的生物入侵。物种扩张，当地人正在接触新的气候和新的生态群落。尽管入侵物种带来了负面后果，但它们可能提供了一个窗口，让我们了解在当代时间尺度上发生在一个最近殖民地区的快速进化适应。这项拟议的研究有可能深入了解物种对过去气候变化的进化反应，并可能帮助我们预测物种如何适应当前气候变化下的扩张。

A major scientific challenge today is understanding the consequences of biological invasions in response to environmental change. The proposed research uses fossil and modern data on marine clams and snails to compare evolutionary changes in species that have expanded geographic ranges along their native coasts with changes in invasive species that have crossed ocean basins with (accidental or intentional) human assistance. This research will evaluate biological characteristics that may confer an expansion advantage (for example, body size), analyze changes in shell shape between the source and colonized regions in both native and invasive expansions, and experimentally assess the contribution of genetic evolution to such shell shape variation.Ultimately, this research seeks to understand biological invasions in marine systems through comparisons with ?native? species expansions, where the natives are coming into contact with novel climates and new ecological communities. Despite the negative consequences of invasive species, they may offer a window into the rapid evolutionary adaptation that occurs in a recently colonized region over contemporary timescales. The proposed research has the potential to give insight into the evolutionary responses of species to past climate change and may help us predict how species adapt in response to expansions under current climate change.