Collaborative Research: ARTS: Integrative Research and Training in Tropical Taxonomy

合作研究：ARTS：热带分类学综合研究和培训

• 批准号: 1456196
• 负责人: Estefania Rodriguez
• 金额: $ 7.39万
• 依托单位: American Museum Natural History
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-01 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1456196&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; ARTS; Integrative; Training

Taxonomy, the science of finding, describing and naming organisms, is vital to biological research and conservation of life's diversity. The on-going effort to survey, inventory, and preserve the ocean's biological diversity is threatened by a shortage of taxonomic expertise. Although focused on Caribbean biodiversity, the overarching goal of this project is to promote conservation of marine biodiversity around the world. This project will make it easier to correctly identify and document marine biodiversity, to detect invasive species, and to protect rare and endangered species by training new taxonomists, by developing Internet-based resources to support taxonomic research, and by making taxonomic methods easily accessible to non-specialists. This project will create new taxonomic descriptions and revisions of currently undescribed species from the Caribbean, which will be immediately useful to any researcher, manager, or conservation practitioner working in the region, and will contribute to the species inventory of the Caribbean. Open-access videos and how-to guides will allow specialists to convey enthusiasm for these organisms to the public, to managers, and to policy makers, and provide a way for students and the general public to learn more about taxonomy. This project has three parts with complementary aims. Part A will document the biodiversity of 6 groups of marine organisms with high, but poorly known, diversity in the Southern Caribbean (sponges, hydroids, sea anemones, sea squirts, ribbon worms, and seaweeds). This work will emphasize the integration of traditional morphological and molecular characters with non-traditional characters such as larval morphology, live coloration, and characters derived from confocal and electron microscopy. Established experts will work closely with experts-in-training, with a focus on species from the Caribbean coast of Panama that are known to be in particular need of taxonomic revision. Part B will provide training workshops for graduate students and junior researchers interested in developing taxonomic expertise in one of 6 focal groups; enabling them to (1) identify species in the field, (2) efficiently collect and preserve material for subsequent taxonomic work, (3) use existing keys or monographs to identify material to species, and (4) develop personal connections with a global network of other students and specialists. Part C will make the basic skills and vocabulary involved in the taxonomy of all 6 groups globally accessible to both expert and non-specialist workers in biodiversity and conservation. This part will develop a standard package of internet-based tools for each group, including a set of how-to videos and illustrated definitions of technical terms, with translations into several languages. This toolkit will be designed to facilitate rapid biodiversity documentation and to increase the precision of preliminary field identifications.

分类学是一门发现、描述和命名生物的科学，对生物研究和保护生命多样性至关重要。正在进行的调查、清点和保护海洋生物多样性的努力受到了分类学专业知识短缺的威胁。该项目的重点是加勒比地区的生物多样性，但其总体目标是促进全世界海洋生物多样性的保护。该项目将通过培训新的分类学家、开发基于互联网的资源来支持分类研究、使分类方法对非专业人员易于获取，使正确识别和记录海洋生物多样性、检测入侵物种以及保护稀有和濒危物种变得更加容易。该项目将对加勒比地区目前未被描述的物种进行新的分类描述和修订，这将对在该地区工作的任何研究人员、管理人员或保护从业者立即有用，并将有助于加勒比地区的物种清单。开放获取的视频和操作指南将允许专家向公众、管理者和政策制定者传达对这些生物的热情，并为学生和公众提供一种了解更多分类学的方法。这个项目有三个部分，目的是互补的。A部分将记录南加勒比地区6组多样性高但鲜为人知的海洋生物（海绵、水螅、海葵、海鞘、带状蠕虫和海藻）的生物多样性。这项工作将强调传统形态和分子特征与非传统特征的结合，如幼虫形态、活的颜色、共聚焦和电子显微镜下的特征。现有专家将与在职专家密切合作，重点关注巴拿马加勒比海岸已知特别需要进行分类修订的物种。B部分将为有兴趣发展分类学专业知识的研究生和初级研究人员在6个焦点小组之一提供培训讲习班；使他们能够(1)在野外识别物种，(2)有效地收集和保存材料，以进行后续的分类工作，(3)使用现有的密钥或专著来识别材料的物种，(4)与其他学生和专家的全球网络建立个人联系。C部分将使生物多样性和保护领域的专家和非专业工作者都能获得全球所有6个类群分类学所涉及的基本技能和词汇。这部分将为每个小组开发一套基于互联网的标准工具，包括一套入门视频和技术术语的图解定义，并翻译成几种语言。该工具包将用于促进生物多样性的快速记录和提高初步野外鉴定的精度。