NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Lessons from museums: impacts of urbanization on biodiversity and the importance of natural history collections

这一行动为NSF 2019财年生物学博士后研究奖学金-使用生物收藏进行研究-提供资金。该奖学金支持将以创新方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。城市化造成的栖息地丧失是对物种生物多样性的威胁。大多数研究比较了农村和城市的生物多样性，而不是研究一个地方的物种如何随着时间的变化而变化。博物馆的收藏品可以提供宝贵的历史数据，说明一个地区几十年来收集了哪些物种。这位研究员将使用北卡罗来纳州立大学昆虫博物馆的蜜蜂和蚂蚁标本来了解北卡罗来纳州维克县、达勒姆县和查塔姆县的生物多样性变化。这些县包括三个都会区，它们经历了广泛的城市增长。蜜蜂为很大比例的农作物授粉，对维持当地植物的生物多样性至关重要。蚂蚁参与植物防御、种子传播和帮助土壤分解。这些活动使得蜜蜂和蚂蚁对生态系统功能都很重要。这项研究将使用基于特征和景观尺度的分析来评估蜜蜂和蚂蚁的生物多样性如何随着时间的推移而变化，并确定变化的驱动因素。该项目还将评估如何增加公众对博物馆自然历史藏品的欣赏，这些藏品往往难以获取和被低估。这些信息还将为保护生态系统服务的城市规划决策提供最佳实践，并为如何评估和实施教育材料创建模型。这项研究有四个目标：(1)确定过去100年来蜜蜂和蚂蚁的生物多样性如何随着城市化强度的变化而变化，特别是关于本地物种是否减少的问题。将使用道路密度作为替代指标来评估城市强度。(2)使用基于特征的方法来确定城市化进程如何影响哪些物种持续存在，以及(3)使用机器学习和模拟模型来预测预测的城市化模式将如何影响未来的生物多样性模式。形态特征(例如，身体大小)将从物理标本中测量，而其他特征(例如，筑巢位置)将从文献和物种描述中收集。(4)利用目标1-3的结果创建身临其境的(例如，虚拟现实)和标准的媒体体验，以说明蜜蜂和蚂蚁的生物多样性如何随着时间的推移而变化，并评估这些体验在提高公众对公共资助的博物馆收藏品的舆论和欣赏方面的有效性。该研究员将接受城市生态学、社会科学、分类学以及包括机器学习和地理空间分析在内的方法的培训。这位研究员还将接受科学交流方面的培训，并通过博物馆活动直接与博物馆参观者接触。这一奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow who will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. Habitat loss from urbanization is a threat to species biodiversity. Most studies compare rural and urban biodiversity, rather than looking at how the species present in one location change through time. Museum collections can provide valuable historical data on what species have been collected in an area for decades. The fellow will use the bee and ant specimens at the North Carolina State University Insect Museum to understand biodiversity change in Wake, Durham, and Chatham counties, North Carolina. These counties contain three metropolitan areas that have undergone extensive urban growth. Bees pollinate a large proportion of agricultural crops, and are critically important in maintaining native plant biodiversity. Ants engage in plant defense, seed dispersal, and help decomposition in the soil. These activities make both bees and ants important for ecosystem function. The research will use trait-based and landscape-scale analyses to assess how bee and ant biodiversity have changed over time, and to identify drivers of change. The project will also evaluate ways to increase public appreciation of museum natural history collections which tend to be inaccessible and undervalued. This information will also provide best practices for urban planning decisions that protect ecosystem services and create models for how educational materials can be evaluated and implemented.This research has four objectives: (1) Determine how biodiversity of bees and ants have changed with urbanization intensity over the past 100 years, specifically with regards to whether there is a reduction in native species. Urban intensity will be evaluated using road density as a proxy. (2) Use a trait-based approach to determine how the urbanization process has affected which species persist, and (3) use machine learning and simulation models to predict how projected patterns of urbanization will affect future biodiversity patterns. Morphological traits (e.g., body size) will be measured from physical specimens, while other traits (e.g., nesting location) will be collected from literature and species descriptions. (4) Create immersive (e.g. virtual reality) and standard media experiences using the results from objectives 1-3 to illustrate how bee and ant biodiversity has changed over time, and assess the effectiveness of these experiences in increasing public opinion of and appreciation for, publicly funded museum collections. The fellow will receive training in urban ecology, social science, taxonomy, and methods including machine learning and geospatial analyses. The fellow will also be trained in science communication and directly engage with museum visitors through museum events.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.