NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

博士后研究员：Jacob Mason Heberling提案编号1612079该行动为2016财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，研究使用生物收集。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，以采取变革性方法应对生物学的重大挑战，以高度创新的方式利用生物学收藏。 这项奖学金的研究计划的标题为J. Mason Heberling是“利用几个世纪的植物标本数据来跟踪植物入侵过程：性状转变，局部适应和快速进化。“该奖学金的主办机构是卡内基自然历史博物馆和田纳西大学诺克斯维尔，赞助科学家是斯蒂芬·汤索尔博士和苏珊·卡利什博士。 本研究的目的是了解基本的植物入侵过程，包括频率和重要性的性状转移植物引进后，这些潜在的性状变化的方向和速度，以及当地适应影响入侵成功的程度。人类活动的全球化使世界各地的植物群落重新洗牌，造成了巨大的环境破坏和经济损失。在这项研究中，研究员利用了几个世纪的生物学收藏以及功能性状生态学的最新进展，以了解基本的植物入侵过程。具体而言，该研究员正在利用卡内基自然历史博物馆植物标本馆的大量收藏，并辅以世界各地其他植物标本馆的标本。该研究员正在使用这些从19世纪初到今天收集的美国东部引进和本土物种的标本，来测量与碳增益，资源利用，繁殖/扩散能力以及时空物候学有关的特征。主要研究目标包括利用这些数据跟踪植物入侵过程中的表型变化，并评估当地适应的作用，以了解和预测物种的成功。该研究员的项目促进了植物标本馆在基于特征的生态学这一新兴领域的使用，并将大大扩展现有的全球特征数据库，以促进大规模基础生物学问题的研究，该研究员正在接受与植物标本馆方法、最新统计进展、地理信息系统和有效标本地理参照软件开发有关的技能培训。职业发展活动包括建立研究合作，开发广泛的研究组合，包括植物标本数据和进化分析，并鼓励多元化的参与，以突出生物收藏作为知识的重要来源，以更广泛的社区的重要性。该研究员正在通过与西PA社区组织的互动，包括当地的基础教育计划和博物馆讲解员培训，促进使用基于收藏的研究。

Postdoctoral Fellow: Jacob Mason HeberlingProposal Number 1612079This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to J. Mason Heberling is "Leveraging centuries of herbarium data to track plant invasion processes: trait shifts, local adaptation, and rapid evolution." The host institutions for this fellowship are the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Stephen Tonsor and Susan Kalisz. The goal of this research is to understand fundamental plant invasion processes, including the frequency and importance of trait shifts following plant introductions, the direction and rate of these potential trait changes, and the degree to which local adaptation influences invasion success. Globalization of human activities has reshuffled plant communities across the world, resulting in substantial environmental damage and economic losses. In this research, the Fellow is leveraging centuries of biological collections alongside recent advances in functional trait ecology to understand fundamental plant invasion processes. Specifically, the Fellow is utilizing the extensive collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History herbarium, supplemented with specimens from other herbaria worldwide. The Fellow is using these specimens of introduced and native Eastern US species, collected from early 1800s to today, to measure traits relating to carbon gain, resource-use, reproductive/dispersal ability, and phenology across space and time. The main research objectives include using these data to track phenotypic change through the course of plant invasion and assess the role of local adaption to understand and predict species success. The Fellow's project fosters the use of herbaria in the rising field of trait-based ecology, and will substantially expand existing global trait databases to facilitate research on fundamental biological questions at a large scale.The Fellow is receiving training in skills associated with herbarium methods, recent statistical advancements, geographic information systems (GIS), and software development for efficient specimen georeferencing. Career development activities include building research collaborations, developing a broad research portfolio to include herbarium data and evolutionary analyses, and encouraging diverse participation to highlight the importance of biological collections as a vital source of knowledge to the broader community. The Fellow is promoting the use of collections-based research through interaction with community organizations in Western PA, including local elementary education programs and museum docent training.