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变对于理解当前随着生境的转移和破碎化而丧失或维持多样性具有重要意义。该项目将使用超过10万种植物的数据库来研究西半球的多样性是如何演变的。该项目将利用应用于遗传、地理和环境数据的信息学新方法，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，该项目将确定物种多样性是否存在硬性限制，以及这些限制在多大程度上取决于环境历史。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。这些工具将广泛提供，培训将建立在文理学院、综合性硕士院校和研究型大学之间的合作基础上。该研究项目将有助于建立基于潜在生态和进化过程的生物多样性预测科学。植物信息和生态网络将利用生物多样性信息学、系统发育分析和多元生态位超级体积模型的最新进展，测试不同生物群系在进化时间内组装的解释。适应、多样化和扩散的进化偶然性如何与不同环境的生态位空间可能的生态限制相互作用将被研究。整个生物群落和进化枝的分类、功能和系统发育多样性将被量化，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落的变化。进化生物群落的变化是否与功能性状或生态位的变化有系统的联系将被研究。生物群系的功能生态位空间是否在进化过程中趋于饱和，以及饱和是否反映了生理上对多样性的生态限制，将会得到检验。这项研究将为生态学、进化论和生物地理学中一些最持久的问题提供新颖的答案，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.