DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Morphological evolution, specialization, and functional ecology in a diverse genus of ants

该项目将解决生物学中的一个基本问题：允许许多物种在任何单一环境中持续存在的机制。蚂蚁在许多不同的栖息地具有高度多样性，对全球生态过程非常重要。为了了解是什么促进了蚂蚁多样性的持久性，必须通过实验确定物理特征（如刺和刺）与生态相互作用（如竞争和防御捕食者）之间的联系。这个项目将调查热带非洲、亚洲和太平洋地区最广泛和最常见的蚂蚁群体之一，多刺蚁。本研究将利用生态学野外实验，评估各种解剖学防御对蚂蚁竞争和反捕食者防御的影响。它将有助于我们了解促进热带生境生物多样性的机制。此外，该项目将促进美国和中国研究人员之间的国际合作。研究人员还将积极参与芝加哥的众多外展和公众参与机会，包括菲尔德自然历史博物馆的各种科学教育项目，以及来自科学代表性不足的群体的初中和高中学生的学术辅导。为了阐明驱动多刺蚁脊柱适应和专业化的生态选择力，研究人员将在中国云南西双版纳热带植物园（XTBG）进行一系列竞争和捕食者-猎物实验。这些实验将包括一系列存在于该地点的物种，这些物种跨越了脊椎形态的全部范围，从不存在到非常长。在第一组测试中，研究人员将评估刺对种间蚂蚁竞争的影响。在第二个实验中，研究人员将量化脊椎作为防御青蛙捕食者所带来的生存益处。这些实验将在实验室中使用田间收集的菌落进行。一个共同的腔室设计与实验脊柱长度操纵将允许区分脊柱长度的两个基本的生态相互作用方面的生存影响。利用这些实验的数据，研究人员将评估竞争能力和由刺介导的反捕食者防御之间的生态权衡的证据。在多刺蚁，一个显着的动物辐射的权衡假设的这些实证测试，将扩大科学的理解，促进社区共存和生态成功的过程。

This project will address a fundamental question in biology: the mechanisms that allow many species to persist in any single environment. Ants are highly diverse in many different habitats and are important for ecological processes worldwide. To understand what promotes the persistence of ant diversity, the association between physical traits, such as spines and stings, and ecological interactions, like competition and defenses against predators, must be experimentally determined. This project will investigate one of the most widespread and commonly encountered ant groups in tropical Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, the spiny ant, Polyrhachis. Using ecological field experiments, this research will assess the effect of a wide range of anatomical defenses on ant competition and anti-predator defense. It will contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms that promote biodiversity in tropical habitats. Furthermore, this project will foster international collaborations between researchers in the U.S. and those in China. The researchers will also actively participate in numerous outreach and public engagement opportunities in Chicago, including various science education programs at the Field Museum of Natural History, and academic tutoring of middle and high school students from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences.To elucidate the ecological selective forces driving spine adaptation and specialization in Polyrhachis, the researchers will conduct a series of competition and predator-prey experiments at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) in Yunnan, China. These experiments will include a range of species that are present at this site and that span the full range of spine morphology, from absent to extremely long. In the first set of tests, the researchers will assess the impact of spines on interspecific ant competition. In the second, the researchers will quantify the survival benefit conferred by spines as defenses against frog predators. These experiments will be conducted in the lab using colonies collected in the field. A common chamber design with experimental spine length manipulation will allow for differentiating the survival effects of spine length in terms of two fundamental ecological interactions. Using data from these experiments, the researchers will evaluate the evidence for an ecological trade-off between competitive ability and anti-predator defense mediated by spines. These empirical tests of the trade-off hypothesis in Polyrhachis, a remarkable animal radiation, will expand scientific understanding of the processes that promote community coexistence and ecological success.