Collaborative Research: Niche evolution, ecological limits, and the macroecology of land plant biodiversity

研究植物物种多样性的长期演化对于理解当前随着生境转移和碎片化而丧失或维持多样性具有重要意义。该项目将使用一个包含100,000多种植物的数据库来研究西半球的多样性是如何演变的。利用应用于遗传、地理和环境数据的信息学新方法，该项目将通过考虑进化多样化、扩散、适应和共存，在广泛的地理尺度上调查物种多样性变化的可能原因。此外，该项目将确定是否存在对物种多样性的硬限制，以及这些限制在多大程度上是由环境历史决定的。这是一个“大数据”项目，将同时开发信息学工具，并培训学生使用这些统计工具。这些工具将被广泛使用，培训将建立在一所文理学院、一所综合硕士机构和一所研究型大学的合作基础上。这一研究项目将有助于基于潜在的生态和进化过程的生物多样性预测科学。将利用植物信息和生态网络，通过利用生物多样性信息学、系统发育分析和多变量生态位超体积模型的最新进展，测试对进化过程中不同生物群组装的解释。将研究适应、多样化和扩散的进化偶发事件如何与不同环境的生态位空间上可能的生态极限相互作用。将对整个生物群落和分支的分类、功能和系统发育多样性进行量化，以便在广泛的地理和时间尺度上模拟生态位进化和生物群转移。进化生物群的转变是否系统地与功能特征的变化或生态位体积的变化有关，将被审查。生物群落的功能生态位空间是否随着进化时间的推移而变得饱和，以及饱和是否反映了生理学上对多样性的生态限制，将受到测试。这项研究将为生态学、进化论和生物地理学中一些最顽固的问题提供新的答案，并为生态信息学提供创新的新工具。

The study of the long-term evolution of plant species diversity is important to understanding current losses or maintenance of diversity as habitats shift and become fragmented. This project will examine how diversity has evolved in the western hemisphere using a database of over 100,000 plant species. Using new approaches in informatics applied to genetic, geographical and environmental data, the project will investigate the possible causes of shifts in species diversity at extensive geographic scales by considering evolutionary diversification, dispersal, adaptation, and coexistence. Additionally, the project will determine if hard limits on species diversity exist and the extent to which these are determined by environmental history. This is a "Big Data" project that will simultaneously develop tools in informatics and train students on the use of these statistical tools. The tools will be made widely available, and training will build on the collaboration among those at a liberal arts college, a comprehensive master's institution, and a research university.This research project will contribute to a predictive science of biodiversity based on underlying ecological and evolutionary processes. The Botanical Information and Ecology Network will be leveraged to test explanations for assembly of diverse biomes over evolutionary time by taking advantage of recent advances in biodiversity informatics, phylogenetic analysis, and the modeling of multivariate niche hypervolumes. How the evolutionary contingencies of adaptation, diversification, and dispersal interact with possible ecological limits on the niche space of different environments will be investigated. The taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of whole biomes and clades will be quantified in order to model niche evolution and biome shifts at extensive geographic and temporal scales. Whether evolutionary biome shifts are systematically associated with changes in functional traits or niche hypervolumes will be examined. Whether or not the functional niche space of biomes becomes saturated over evolutionary time, and if saturation reflects ecological limits on diversification through physiology, will be tested. The research will contribute novel answers to some of the most persistent questions in ecology, evolution, and biogeography, as well as innovative new tools in ecoinformatics.