Collaborative Research: ARTS: Understanding Tropical Invertebrate Diversity Through Integrative Revisionary Systematics and Training

该项目的目标是记录南加勒比海海洋生物的生物多样性，并培训下一代研究具有生态和经济重要性但研究不足的海洋无脊椎动物(文蛤、海懒、扁虫、带虫、种虾和飞毛腿)的研究人员。从概念上讲，该项目侧重于理解生物多样性方面的三大挑战：(1)记录全球生物多样性及其对国家福祉的重要性；(2)识别和描述新物种；(3)确定动物群体内部和之间的关系。分类学是一门发现、描述和命名生物的科学，对所有生物研究以及对理解和保护生物多样性都至关重要。正在进行的调查、清查和保护海洋生物多样性的努力受到分类学专业知识短缺的威胁。该项目将培训下一代年轻的美国STEM研究人员成为专家，他们可以记录这些动物群体的生物多样性，应用新的方法来帮助解决这些群体之间的关系，并最终了解动物生命的起源。这一努力还将促进海洋动物的保护，海洋动物在经济上很重要，但与陆地生物相比，记录较少。它还将有助于检测入侵物种。该项目将为协调小组中的动物编制新的物种说明，为巴拿马和南加勒比地区编制物种清单，并将向在线生物多样性网站和实地指南提供数据。这些活动分为三部分，目的相辅相成。(1)分类学研究将包括物种描述、分类学修订以及在六个分类组别内编制区域核对清单和检索表。这项工作将强调传统的形态和分子特征与非传统特征的结合，如幼虫或配子的类型和形态、新的解剖细节和3D成像。资深专家将与培训中的专家密切合作，审查和修订这些来自加勒比的动物，它们特别需要分类学上的关注。(2)该项目将支持在巴拿马史密森热带研究所热带野战站举办的6个为期14天的讲习班，让美国和国际专家和受训人员参加。这些研讨会将对参与者进行识别方法方面的培训，提高对群体之间关系的理解，提供热带多样性的实践经验，并建立持久的国际合作，以促进美国的生物多样性研究，并改善与国际野外地点的可达性。(3)将开发信息学资源，使生物多样性和养护方面的专家和非专家工作者能够获得全球六个组的分类所涉及的基本技能和词汇。这项工作将涉及为每个群体开发一套在线工具，包括一套“如何操作”视频、有插图的解剖术语词汇表以及当地物种的核对表和数字检索表。该工具包旨在促进快速分类记录和提高字段识别的精确度。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project is to document the biodiversity of marine organisms of the southern Caribbean and to train the next generation of researchers working on ecologically and economically important, but under-studied marine invertebrates (clams, sea slugs, flatworms, ribbon worms, seed shrimp, and scuds). Conceptually, this project focuses on three major challenges in understanding biodiversity: (1) documenting global biodiversity and its importance to the well-being of the nation, (2) identifying and describing new species, and (3) determining the relationships within and among animal groups. Taxonomy, the science of finding, describing and naming organisms, is vital to all biological research and to understanding and conserving biodiversity. The on-going effort to survey, inventory, and preserve the ocean's biological diversity is threatened by a shortage of taxonomic expertise. This project will train the next generation of young US STEM researchers to become experts who can document biodiversity in these groups of animals, apply novel methods to help resolve the relationships between these groups, and ultimately understand the origins of animal life. This effort will also promote conservation of marine animals, which are economically important, but are poorly documented compared to terrestrial organisms. It will also aid in the detection of invasive species. This project will produce new species descriptions for animals in the focal groups, generate species lists for Panama and the southern Caribbean, and will contribute data to an online biodiversity website and field guide. The activities fall into three parts with complementary aims. (1) Taxonomic research will include species descriptions, taxonomic revisions, and development of regional check-lists and keys within the six taxonomic groups. This work will emphasize the integration of conventional morphological and molecular characters with non-traditional characters such as type and morphology of larvae or gametes, novel anatomical details, and 3D imaging. Established experts will work closely with experts-in-training to review and revise these animals from the Caribbean, which are in particular need of taxonomic attention. (2) The project will support six 14-day workshops mixing US and international experts and trainees at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute tropical field station in Panama. These workshops will train participants in methods for identification, improve understanding of relationships among the groups, provide hands-on experience with tropical diversity, and build lasting international collaborations to promote US biodiversity research and improve accessibility to international field locations. (3) Informatics resources will be developed to make the basic skills and vocabulary involved in taxonomy of the six groups globally accessible to expert and non-specialist workers in biodiversity and conservation. This work will involve the development of a package of online tools for each group, including a set of "how-to" videos, illustrated glossaries of anatomical terms, and checklists and digital keys of local species. This toolkit will be designed to facilitate rapid taxonomic documentation and to increase the precision of field identifications.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.