Collaborative Research: A Biotic Inventory of Terrestrial Vertebrates, Spiders, and Haemosporidian Parasites of Sulawesi, Indonesia

印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛物种异常丰富，因此是生物多样性发现的重要地点。该研究项目将清点这个热带大岛上的陆生脊椎动物（两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物）、蜘蛛和脊椎动物寄生虫。由各个分类群的专家组成的实地考察小组将在五个实地考察季节中对苏拉威西岛的 10 座主要山脉进行调查。现在，在一些森林完好无损的情况下对这个岛屿进行彻底采样，并将这些收藏品存放在自然历史博物馆中，支持热带多样化研究的原材料（标本）将为这一代和后代的生物研究人员提供。该项目包括对美国和印度尼西亚研究机构的本科生和研究生、博士后和技术人员进行生物调查研究的培训。印度尼西亚资深科学家将协助美国研究人员对标本进行合作分析。研究团队将组织两场研讨会，主要围绕分子遗传数据收集和分析，包括高通量序列数据，以及相应的群体遗传、系统发育和生物地理学分析。苏拉威西岛的特点是具有高度特有的生物群，这是由于其幅员辽阔、地理环境、与所有其他陆地的长期隔离以及复杂的构造历史造成的。岛上地形起伏较大，海拔1000米以上的大片地区，2500米以上的山峰有20座，3000米以上的山峰有6座。它可能从未与其西部更近的巽他大陆架相连，也从未与其东部更遥远的萨胡尔大陆架（新几内亚、澳大利亚及其陆桥岛屿）相连，因此在其整个 20-2500 万年的历史中一直处于孤立状态。苏拉威西岛是一个复合岛屿，由至少五个古岛屿组成，这些岛屿彼此相距数百万年，然后在 10 至 500 万年前或多或少同时合并。该岛的复合性质与苏拉威西岛原地物种多样化的过程密切相关。选择生物调查工作的现场地点是为了对苏拉威西岛的四个分支及其中央核心进行彻底的采样。该计划的一个主要重点是沿着每个地方性地区最大山脉的海拔断面进行采样，从而使断面海拔达到 2500 米。这里针对的焦点类群都没有从高海拔地点进行充分采样。拟议的实地工作具有相当大的科学价值，大致分为以下主题：（1）生物多样性记录，包括物种及其分布、进化和种群遗传关系和亲缘关系，以及物种和群落多样化的年代学和地质背景；（2）保护生物学，包括疾病爆发和反应、入侵物种和灭绝的记录；（3）了解有趣的进化过程，包括适应性辐射、杂交、生态机会和生物创新的遗传基础。

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi is unusually rich in species and therefore is an important location for biodiversity discovery. This research project will inventory terrestrial vertebrates (amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), spiders, and vertebrate parasites of this large tropical island. Field teams composed of specialists on each of these taxonomic groups will survey 10 major mountains on Sulawesi over the course of five field seasons. By thoroughly sampling this island now while some forest remains fully intact and depositing these collections in natural history museums, the raw materials (specimens) supporting the study of tropical diversification will be made available to this and future generations of biological researchers. This project includes training of undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and technicians from US and Indonesian research institutions in biotic survey research. Senior Indonesian scientists will aid US researchers in a collaborative analysis of specimens. The research team will organize two workshops primarily oriented around molecular genetic data collection and analysis, including high-throughput sequence data, and corresponding population genetic, phylogenetic, and biogeographical analysis. Sulawesi is characterized by a highly endemic biota, resulting from its large size, geographic setting, long period of isolation from all other land masses, and complex tectonic history. The island exhibits substantial topographical relief, with vast areas over 1000 m above sea level, 20 summits greater than 2500 m in height, and six summits above 3000 m. It probably has never been connected to the more proximate Sunda continental shelf to its west, nor with the more distant Sahul Shelf (New Guinea, Australia, and their land-bridge islands) to its east, and thus has been isolated for its entire history of 20-25 million years. Sulawesi is a composite island composed of at least five paleo-islands that were distantly separated from one another for several million years before merging more or less simultaneously between 10 and 5 million years ago. The composite nature of the island has been strongly implicated in the process of in situ species diversification on Sulawesi. Field sites for biotic survey work were selected to allow thorough sampling of the four arms of Sulawesi as well as its Central Core. A major focus of the program will be sampling along elevational transects on the largest mountains of each Area of Endemism, thereby enabling transects that reach 2500 m in elevation. None of the focal taxa targeted here have been sampled adequately from high elevation sites. The scientific value of the proposed field efforts are considerable and fall broadly into the following themes: (1) documentation of biodiversity, including species and their distributions, evolutionary and population genetic relationships and affinities, and the chronology and geological context of species and community diversification, (2) conservation biology, including documentation of disease outbreak and response, invasive species, and extinction, and (3) understanding of interesting evolutionary processes, including adaptive radiation, hybridization, ecological opportunity, and the genetic basis of biological innovation.