SG: Collaborative Research: Evolution and Speciation in Afromontane and Alpine Grasshoppers in Southern Africa

了解和记录世界的生物多样性是生物保护的第一步。在世界上众多生物多样性热点地区中，南部非洲以其多样化和独特的动植物而闻名。在过去的十年里，科学家们记录了该地区600多种蚱蜢。蚱蜢在生态和经济上都很重要，因为它们是陆地生态系统的重要组成部分，特别是草原，并且包括几种严重的害虫。尽管在南部非洲进行了多年的生物多样性研究，但科学家们已经认识到，有一种动物从未被充分探索过——栖息在南非山林中的不会飞的蚱蜢。该地区的森林斑块和孤立的山峰代表了生境岛，世界上没有其他陆基生境岛系统在数量、规模和结构复杂性上能与南非的非洲山地带相匹敌。这个项目的重点是了解在这个令人惊叹和复杂的景观中蚱蜢的总体多样性，以及形成这种多样性的过程。该项目的结果将提供有关复杂栖息地物种多样性的关键信息，并帮助研究人员更好地了解美国和世界各地类似栖息地的物种多样性和分布。本项目将重点研究南部非洲特有的蝗虫科Lentulidae，并解决以下两个问题：(i)南非高山和非洲山区Lentulidae的总物种多样性是多少？（二）香菇科的物种形成和多样化模式与它们的地理分布有什么关系？为了寻找新物种，科学家们将在南非的德拉肯斯堡悬崖（Drakensberg Escarpment）和非洲山区森林斑块上探索inselberg（突然从周围环境中升起的孤立山峰）和邻近的高原。利用现代分类学技术，科学家们将迅速描述这种独特的蚱蜢动物群，并将由此产生的标本级数据以数字方式提供给公众。该项目还将重建焦点分类群之间的进化关系，以研究这些不会飞的小蚱蜢是如何在孤立的昆虫堡和非洲山区森林斑块中定居和多样化的。具体而言，将使用RAD-Seq生成基因组尺度的单核苷酸多态性（SNP）数据，以估计系统地理模式以及推断那些似乎广泛分布的物种的群体遗传结构。该项目将为德州农工大学和德雷塞尔大学的本科生提供实践研究和指导经验。

Understanding and documenting the world's biodiversity is the first step in biological conservation. Among many biodiversity hotpots around the world, southern Africa is particularly well-known for its diverse and unique plants and animals. Over the past decade, scientists have documented more than 600 species of grasshoppers from this region. Grasshoppers are ecologically and economically important as they are critical components of terrestrial ecosystems, especially grasslands, and include several serious pest species. Despite the years of biodiversity research in southern Africa, scientists have recognized that there is a certain fauna that has never been fully explored - the flightless grasshoppers occupying the mountain forests in South Africa. The forest patches and isolated mountain peaks in this area represent habitat islands, and there is no other land-based system of habitat islands in the world with the number, size, and configurational complexity as the Afromontane zone in South Africa. This project focuses on understanding the total diversity of grasshoppers in this amazing and complex landscape and the processes shaping this diversity. The results from this project will provide critical information about species diversification in complex habitats and help researchers better understand species diversity and distributions in similar habitats in the US and around the world.This project will focus on the grasshopper family Lentulidae, which is endemic to southern Africa, and address the following two questions: (i) What is the total species diversity of Lentulidae in the alpine and Afromontane regions in South Africa? and (ii) What are patterns of speciation and diversification in Lentulidae as related to their geographic distribution? Scientists will explore inselbergs (isolated mountain peaks rising abruptly from surroundings) and adjacent plateaus in the Drakensberg Escarpment and the Afromontane forest patches in South Africa in search of new species. Using modern taxonomic techniques, the scientists will rapidly describe this unique grasshopper fauna and make the resulting specimen-level data digitally available to the public. The project will also reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among the focal taxa to examine how these small flightless grasshoppers have colonized and diversified in isolated inselbergs and Afromontane forest patches. Specifically, genome-scale single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data will be generated using RAD-Seq to estimate phylogeographic patterns as well as for inferring population genetic structures for those species that appear to be widespread. The project will provide hands-on research and mentoring experience for undergraduate students at Texas A&M University and Drexel University.