DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Urbanization and Avian Biodiversity

论文研究：城市化和鸟类生物多样性

• 批准号: 1701727
• 负责人: John Bates
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Chicago
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701727&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Urbanization; Avian; Biodiversity

Most humans now live in urban environments. Despite the trend towards urbanization, little is known about the influence of urban environments on the evolution and ecology of many animals. In Europe, a gene has been found to vary between urban and rural birds. This gene encodes a protein that transports an important hormone in and out of cells. This variation is thought to help birds cope differently with stress in urban settings by influencing mood and behavior. However, a major question remains, does this genetic variation consistently correspond to urbanization across species and around the world? This research will explore how this gene varies in different bird species inside and outside cities in the Pacific coast of the US and western Amazon of Peru. Examining the genetic differences in a diversity of birds in different locations will give us general insight into how urbanization affects bird evolution. This urban focused research will make biological science more relevant to human residents and will inform the way cities grow by recognizing that we share these landscapes with wildlife. In addition, this international research will promote scientific exchange between Peru and the US. This research will focus on genetic markers associated with a serotonin transporter. To understand the background genetic diversity in these markers, the researchers will first characterize the variation at a biogeographic scale. They will do this by taking tissue samples from natural history museum collections representing the full range of six focal species and sequencing the DNA in the relevant marker regions. Then, along with local scientists in Peru, the researchers will catch birds of the same six species in two large cities, two small cities, and two rural/natural areas. The same genetic markers will be sequenced and variation between the study sites and the larger biogeographic patterns will be assessed. Because a multi-species, multi-environment, comparative approach has not been carried out before, any pattern in the results with inform our understanding of genetic diversity in the tropics and its role in resilience against urbanization. If the patterns at a fine spatial scale are consistent with those at a large spatial scale, it will show that, unlike in Europe, urbanization has not had an important effect on the distribution of alleles of this gene in these species. If the serotonin transporter genetic diversity is different at a fine spatial scale rather than a large spatial scale, while neutral genetic markers show the same patterns of diversity at fine and large spatial scales, it will indicate that this gene has perhaps been under selection associated with urbanization. If all genetic markers show differences at fine spatial scales from large spatial scales, further investigation will be needed to tease apart the roles of ecology and species selection in urban areas, making this project a valuable first foray into a case of rapid adaptive evolution in a novel environment.

现在，大多数人类生活在城市环境中。尽管有城市化的趋势，但对城市环境对许多动物的进化和生态的影响知之甚少。在欧洲，发现一个基因在城市和农村鸟类之间有所不同。该基因编码一种蛋白质，该蛋白质将重要的激素输入和输出细胞。人们认为这种差异可以通过影响情绪和行为来帮助鸟类应对城市环境中的压力。但是，一个主要的问题仍然存在，这种遗传变异是否始终与世界各地的城市化相对应？ 这项研究将探讨该基因在美国和秘鲁西部的太平洋海岸内外的不同鸟类种类中如何变化。 检查不同位置鸟类多样性的遗传差异将使我们对城市化如何影响鸟类进化的一般见解。这项以城市为中心的研究将使生物科学与人类居民更加相关，并通过认识到我们与野生动植物共享这些景观来告知城市成长的方式。此外，这项国际研究将促进秘鲁与美国之间的科学交流。 这项研究将集中于与5-羟色胺转运蛋白相关的遗传标记。为了了解这些标记中的背景遗传多样性，研究人员将首先以生物地理规模的形式来表征这种变化。他们将通过从自然历史博物馆收藏中获取代表六个焦点物种的全范围并在相关标记区域进行DNA的组织样品来做到这一点。然后，研究人员将与秘鲁的当地科学家一起在两个大城市，两个小城市和两个农村/自然地区捕获相同六种物种的鸟类。将对相同的遗传标记进行测序，并评估研究地点之间的变化和较大的生物地理模式。因为在以前没有进行多种物种，多种环境，比较方法，因此结果中的任何模式都可以使我们对热带地区遗传多样性的理解及其在抵抗城市化的韧性中的作用。如果良好的空间尺度的模式与大型空间尺度的模式一致，则它将表明，与欧洲不同，城市化对这些基因在这些物种中的等位基因的分布没有重要影响。如果5-羟色胺转运蛋白的遗传多样性在细小的空间尺度上而不是大空间尺度上有所不同，而中性遗传标记物在细和大空间尺度上显示出相同的多样性模式，则表明该基因可能与城市化相关。如果所有遗传标记物与大空间尺度的细微空间尺度上显示出差异，则需要进一步的研究来嘲笑城市地区的生态学和物种选择的作用，使该项目成为新颖环境中快速适应性进化的案例。