Collaborative Research - LTREB RUI Renewal: Evolutionary demography - the contribution of adaptation and environment to population dynamics, range size, and niche width

生态学和进化生物学的一个基本目标是解释物种的地理分布。但是物种是动态的实体，它们的地理分布会对不断变化的环境做出反应。如果合适栖息地的环境发生变化，物种的种群可以通过自然选择适应当前的栖息地，或者需要迁移到新的地点。由于环境变化的速度加快，了解物种分布的机制尤为及时。适应对种群动态、地方持久性和一个物种栖息的地理范围的贡献很少被量化。虽然比较生态学研究和物种分布模型通常假设在一个物种的地理范围内的遗传一致性，遗传研究一再表明当地的适应。该项目通过继续进行长期实地种群人口统计研究和使用物种分布模型，明确审查适应对种群增长的贡献和物种地理分布范围。该项目还将涉及到一所农村中学的推广，让学生参与研究活动，并将通过一个创新的推广计划，市场科学，让研究人员在农贸市场与公众接触，将公民与研究科学家联系起来。该研究小组将重点研究一种经过充分研究的加州本土植物物种，Clarkia xantiana，该物种已成为12年来深入实地研究的重点。这项研究将提供有关物种范围如何演变以及可能影响物种对气候变化反应的因素的新的，非常详细的信息。本项目的具体目标是：（1）种群动态是否从物种分布区的中心到边缘发生变化，以及什么环境因素驱动这种变化：（2）地方适应的空间尺度及其与种群间人口相似性的关系;（3）种群动态和适应在形成环境耐受性（生态位宽度）和地理范围大小方面的相互作用。只有长期的研究才能对控制种群持续性、进化适应性及其对物种分布范围的影响提供可靠的预测。生命率（如生存，繁殖），人口增长，非生物和生物（草食动物）因素的长期人口数据集，已收集在35个自然种群跨越物种的范围的主要部分。对田间种群的所有监测将再持续10年。过去的工作已经研究了当地的适应人口统计学上不同的人群之间使用大型互惠移植实验。该奖项反映了NSF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。

A fundamental objective of ecology and evolutionary biology is to explain the geographic distributions of species. But species are dynamic entities, and their geographic distributions respond to changing environments. If the environment of their suitable habitat changes, populations of a species can sustain themselves in their current habitat by adaption through natural selection, or they need to shift to new locations. Understanding the mechanisms that account for species distributions is especially timely because of the accelerating pace of environmental change. The contribution of adaptation to population dynamics, local persistence, and to the geographic range inhabited by a species, has rarely been quantified. Although comparative ecological studies and species distribution models typically assume genetic uniformity across a species geographic range, genetic studies have repeatedly demonstrated local adaptation. This project explicitly examines the contribution of adaptation to population growth and the extent of a species geographic range, through the continuation of a long-term field population demographic study and the use of a species distribution model. The project will also involve outreach to a rural middle school, engaging students in research activities, and it will connect citizens to research scientists through an innovative outreach program, Market Science, where researchers engage the public at farmer's markets. The research team will focus on a well-studied California native plant species, Clarkia xantiana, which has been the focus of intensive field research for over 12 years. This research will provide new, exceptionally detailed information about how species' ranges evolve and the factors that are likely to influence species responses to climate variation. The specific objectives of this project are to examine: (1) whether population dynamics vary from the center to margins of the species' range and what environmental factors drive this variation; (2) the spatial scale of local adaptation and how it relates to demographic similarity among populations; and (3) the interplay of population dynamics and adaptation in shaping environmental tolerances (niche width) and geographic range size. Only long-term studies can provide robust predictions about what controls population persistence, evolutionary adaptation, and their consequences for species ranges. Long-term demographic datasets of vital rates (e.g. survival, reproduction), population growth, and abiotic and biotic (herbivory) factors, have been collected in 35 natural populations spanning the major portion of the species' range. All monitoring of field populations will be continued an additional ten years. Past work has examined local adaptation using a large reciprocal transplant experiment among demographically-divergent populations. This experiment will be repeated in the project's second five-year phase.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.