CAREER: Islands as Models to Study Effects of Multidimensional Selection

这个项目将研究是什么决定了加拉帕戈斯群岛的物种多样性，影响多样性的因素在其复杂性范围内。加拉帕戈斯群岛的年龄从年轻（不到5万年）到年老（超过400万年）不等。这一年龄范围可用于研究两种情况下生物多样性是如何形成的：一种是群落简单，相互作用的物种很少（在年轻的岛屿上），另一种是群落较为复杂，以众多生物相互作用为特征（在较老的岛屿上）。该项目将测量新物种形成的速度和多样性在一组大约80种陆地蜗牛中积累的速度，这些蜗牛形成了加拉帕戈斯群岛物种多样性最大的扩散。实地研究和实验室研究相结合将用于了解自然选择的复杂性如何影响进化的速度。爱达荷大学为本科生开设的一门课程将向学生介绍生物多样性模式，并通过在太平洋西北部进行一系列类似于加拉帕戈斯群岛研究考察的实地考察，指导他们了解产生这些模式的潜在进化核心原则。学生还将通过探险学习胶囊（视频和综合教学材料）跟踪加拉帕戈斯群岛的研究，这将指导和激励他们发展自己的当地研究项目。外展活动还包括编写一本关于加拉帕戈斯陆生蜗牛的英西双语指南，为加拉帕戈斯公园护林员、工作人员科学家和导游举办讲座和讲习班，并在科学出版物、教科书、杂志和大众媒体上传播研究成果。岛屿是活生生的实验室，在那里，进化变化是清晰、有形的，可以直接观察到。在加拉帕戈斯群岛上，随着物种聚集在更加多样化和复杂的群落中，从年轻的岛屿到古老的岛屿，选择压力的数量不断增加。尽管大量的研究工作致力于量化简单环境中的选择，但仍需要表征复杂自然生物系统中多种选择压力的影响和相互作用，而拟议的工作将填补这一空白。该项目将描述蜗牛形态和生理特征的变化，并量化加拉帕戈斯群岛大约80种Naesiotus属的特有陆地蜗牛及其大陆亲缘种的多种环境因素的变化。该谱系的物种水平系统发育历史将被重建，以确定导致Galapagos Naesiotus蜗牛多样性的独立殖民化事件的数量，并将表型-环境关联分析置于系统发育知情的框架中。然后，这些数据将用于解决与多重选择压力（即增加的复杂性）对该谱系中表型变化和适应速率的影响有关的假设。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will study the question of what governs the diversity of species using the Galapagos Islands, where factors influencing diversity range in their complexity. The islands of the Galapagos vary in age from young (less than 50,000 years old) to old (more than 4 million years old). This range in age can be used to study how biological diversity is shaped when communities are simple with few interacting species (on young islands), and when communities are more complex and characterized by numerous biological interactions (on older islands). This project will measure the rate at which new species are formed and diversity accumulates across a group of approximately 80 species of land snails forming the Galapagos's largest proliferation of species diversity. A combination of field and laboratory studies will be used to understand how the rate of evolution is influenced by the complexity of natural selection. A course for undergraduate students at the University of Idaho will introduce students to biodiversity patterns and guide them through the underlying evolutionary core principles generating these patterns using a series of field research excursions in the Pacific Northwest that is analogous to the Galapagos research expeditions. Students will also follow Galapagos research via Adventure Learning capsules (videos and integrated teaching material) which will guide and inspire them in the development of their own local research projects. Outreach activities also include developing a bilingual English-Spanish guidebook of Galapagos terrestrial snails, presentations and workshops for Galapagos park rangers, staff scientists, and guides, and disseminating research results in scientific publications, textbooks, magazines and the popular press.Islands are living laboratories where evolutionary change is clear, tangible, and can be directly observed. On Galapagos, the number of selection pressures increases from young to old islands as species assemble in more diverse and complex communities. Although substantial research efforts have been devoted to quantify selection in simple environments, there is a need to characterize the effects and interactions of multiple selection pressures in complex natural biological systems, and the proposed work will fill this gap. The project will characterize variation in morphological and physiological traits of snails and quantify variation in multiple environmental factors for the approximately 80 Galapagos endemic land snail species of the genus Naesiotus and their mainland relatives. Species-level phylogenetic history of the lineage will be reconstructed to determine the number of independent colonization events that led to the diversity of Galapagos Naesiotus snails, and put the phenotype-environment association analyses in a phylogenetically-informed framework. The data will then be used to address hypotheses related to the effects of multiple selection pressures (i.e., increased complexity) on the rate of phenotypic change and adaptation in this lineage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.