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

印度尼西亚的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。这项研究项目将清点这个热带大岛的陆生脊椎动物（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。由每个分类组的专家组成的实地考察队将在五个实地考察季节中调查苏拉威西岛的10座主要山脉。现在，在一些森林仍然完整无损的情况下，通过对这个岛屿进行彻底的取样，并将这些收藏品存放在自然历史博物馆，支持热带多样性研究的原材料（标本）将提供给这一代和后代的生物研究人员。该项目包括对来自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方面的培训。印尼高级科学家将协助美国研究人员合作分析标本。该研究小组将组织两个研讨会，主要围绕分子遗传数据收集和分析，包括高通量序列数据，以及相应的种群遗传，系统发育和地理分析。苏拉威西岛的特点是高度地方性的生物群，这是由于其面积大，地理环境，与所有其他陆地长期隔离，以及复杂的构造历史。岛上地形起伏较大，海拔超过1000米的地区广阔，20座山峰高度超过2500米，6座山峰高度超过3000米。它可能从来没有连接到更近的巽他大陆架到它的西部，也没有与更远的萨胡尔大陆架（新几内亚，澳大利亚和他们的陆桥岛屿）到它的东部，因此一直孤立的整个历史的20-25百万年。苏拉威西岛是一个由至少五个古岛屿组成的复合岛屿，这些岛屿彼此相隔数百万年，然后在1000万至500万年前或多或少同时合并。苏拉威西岛的复合性质与当地物种多样化进程密切相关。生物调查工作的实地地点是选定的，以便对苏拉威西岛的四个分支及其中央核心进行彻底的取样。该计划的一个主要重点是在每个特有区最大的山脉上沿沿着海拔样带取样，从而使海拔达到2500米的样带成为可能。没有一个重点类群在这里有针对性的采样充分高海拔地区。拟议的实地工作具有相当大的科学价值，大致可分为以下主题：（1）生物多样性的文献，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表和地质背景，（2）保护生物学，包括疾病爆发和反应，入侵物种和灭绝的文献，（3）理解有趣的进化过程，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.