NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

2016 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1612062
• 负责人: Matthew Borths
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Borths Matthew R
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612062&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

Postdoctoral Fellow: Matthew R. BorthsProposal Number 1612062This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Interdisciplinary Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to engage in research and training that utilizes biological collections. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Matthew Borths is "Mammalian carnivore diversity, replacement, and extinction when the modern African ecosystem emerged." The host institution for this fellowship is Ohio University, and the sponsoring scientist is Nancy Stevens.This project examines changes in African food webs after the continent of Africa collided with Eurasia twenty-three million years ago. When this continental collision occurred, animals native to Africa spread into Asian, European, and American ecosystems while animals native to these northern continents spread south into African ecosystems. Before the collision, the top of the African food chain was occupied by predators from Hyaenodonta, a group of mammals that are now extinct. After the collision, relatives of modern cats, dogs, and mongooses invaded Africa and started to occupy carnivore niches alongside hyaenodonts. By about eight million years ago, the hyaenodonts, once a diverse and dominant group of carnivores, were extinct. The Fellow is examining this crucial time period in African history, when carnivores from different continents encountered one another, establishing a natural experiment that will facilitate understanding how changes at the top of the food chain affect the ecosystem. To accomplish this goal, the Fellow is using several biological collections to analyze changes in African carnivore assemblages, and developing models of the niches occupied by the once-dominant hyaenodont carnivores before and after the invasion of carnivores from outside Africa. Newly discovered hyaenodont material collected in the Rukwa Rift Basin of Tanzania and Meswa Bridge in Kenya is being described to better understand the full diversity of hyaenodonts during this ecological transition. Today, carnivores play a significant role in stabilizing their ecosystems and supporting biodiversity. But, around the world, carnivores are rapidly being lost in modern ecosystems. The discoveries made through this project will provide a deep time perspective to policymakers who must confront the rapid decrease in mammalian carnivore diversity and populations in North America and around the world. The Fellow is receiving training in paleobiological methods and niche modeling. He is also mentoring undergraduate researchers recruited from underrepresented groups in science, including the Appalachian Scholars program at Ohio University. The Fellow is making his results accessible to a wider, non-specialized audience through Past Time, a project he co-created and that uses blogging, podcasts, and virtual fieldtrips to paleontology labs to illustrate the scientific process through paleontology. The Fellow is also collaborating with sponsor Stevens to create online and physical exhibits for a natural history and environment museum at Ohio University, which will feature portions of this project. For many K-12 students in Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia, this museum will be the closest natural history exhibit space.

博士后研究员：Matthew R. BorthsProposal Number 1612062该行动为2016财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，使用生物收集进行跨学科研究。该研究金支持一项研究和培训计划，使研究员能够从事利用生物标本的研究和培训。 这个奖学金的研究计划的标题马修Borths是“哺乳动物食肉动物多样性，更换，灭绝时，现代非洲生态系统出现。“这个奖学金的主办机构是俄亥俄州大学，赞助科学家是南希·史蒂文斯。这个项目研究了2300万年前非洲大陆与欧亚大陆相撞后非洲食物网的变化。当大陆碰撞发生时，非洲本土的动物扩散到亚洲、欧洲和美洲的生态系统，而这些北方大陆的动物则向南扩散到非洲的生态系统。在碰撞之前，非洲食物链的顶端被来自Hyaenodonta的捕食者占据，Hyaenodonta是一群现已灭绝的哺乳动物。碰撞之后，现代猫、狗和猫鼬的亲戚入侵非洲，并开始与鬣狗一起占据食肉动物的壁龛。到大约800万年前，曾经是一个多样化和占主导地位的食肉动物群体的鬣狗灭绝了。该研究员正在研究非洲历史上的这一关键时期，当时来自不同大陆的食肉动物相互相遇，建立了一个自然实验，将有助于了解食物链顶端的变化如何影响生态系统。为了实现这一目标，研究员正在使用几个生物收集来分析非洲食肉动物组合的变化，并开发曾经占主导地位的鬣狗食肉动物在非洲以外的食肉动物入侵之前和之后所占据的壁龛模型。在坦桑尼亚的鲁夸河裂谷盆地和肯尼亚的梅斯瓦桥收集的新发现的鬣狗材料正在被描述，以更好地了解在这一生态过渡期间的鬣狗的全部多样性。今天，食肉动物在稳定生态系统和支持生物多样性方面发挥着重要作用。但是，在世界各地，食肉动物正在现代生态系统中迅速消失。通过该项目所取得的发现将为决策者提供深刻的时间观，他们必须面对北美和世界各地哺乳动物食肉动物多样性和种群的快速减少。该研究员正在接受古生物学方法和生态位建模方面的培训。他还指导从科学界代表性不足的群体招募的本科研究人员，包括俄亥俄州大学的阿巴拉契亚学者项目。该研究员正在通过过去的时间，他共同创建的一个项目，并使用博客，播客和虚拟实地考察古生物学实验室，以说明通过古生物学的科学过程，使他的结果更广泛，非专业观众。该研究员还与赞助商史蒂文斯合作，为俄亥俄州大学的自然历史和环境博物馆创建在线和实物展览，该博物馆将展示该项目的部分内容。对于许多K-12学生在阿巴拉契亚俄亥俄州和西弗吉尼亚州，这个博物馆将是最近的自然历史展览空间。