Collaborative Research: Testing Evolutionary Psuedocongruence Along the Baja California Peninsula Through Integration of Geologic and Genomic Data

地球和生物科学研究的一个主要目标是了解不同的过程，如构造活动、降雨梯度和冰川驱动的气候循环如何随着时间的推移塑造进化和生物多样性。在墨西哥的下加利福尼亚半岛中部，人们在几十个物种中观察到一种先前记录的南北种群遗传分化模式，但这种分化模式的潜在控制因素目前尚不清楚。该项目旨在通过对地质、生态和基因组数据集的综合研究，测试可能控制1000公里长的半岛上生物多样性的三个过程。这项工作的一个社会效益将是利用“大数据”，定量地整合科学发现的新型数据集。除其他好处外，这些项目将指导和培训博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生进行跨学科研究的最佳实践，这是保持美国在全球创新方面的竞争力所必需的。这项工作将包括与墨西哥科学家的合作，并将与目前由美国国家科学基金会资助的下加利福尼亚州中部的另外两项研究协调。该小组将制作一系列简短的培训视频来演示常见的野外工作技术，并制作一组动画来总结下加利福尼亚州的地质和生物历史，目的是向非专业人士传达跨学科的地质生物学概念。pi将举办一个社区研讨会，以推进地球生命研究，并实施亚利桑那州立大学和亚利桑那大学之间的艺术科学合作课程。本研究将检验三个假设，以解释先前记录的横跨下加利福尼亚半岛中部的南北遗传分化模式：(1)上新世时期，半岛中部地区的种群被物理屏障（海洋航道）隔离；(2)更新世冰期孤立的难民种群；(3)由于不同步繁殖和/或对降水制度的不同适应，季风驱动的降雨时间差异使物种孤立。该团队将绘制分裂发生的半岛中部地区的构造、地层和火山特征的地图并确定日期；利用现代地质年代学方法对沉积、火山作用、变形和隆升的时间进行了限定；评估被子植物、爬行动物和哺乳动物的低覆盖基因组，以评估种群基因组特征、局部适应的位点和等位基因变异的空间格局；评估季节性基因表达；开发现代和冰川气候的生态位模式；并测试当今的生态位分化。本研究将包括地质和气候复杂性，以了解控制基因组进化和多样化的外在因素，并探索生物进化如何由多个共同发生的过程驱动（伪一致性）。我们的方法在进化框架内使用尖端的地质、生物学和统计学方法，将生物基因组进化与物理环境中共同发生的变化结合起来。这些发现将促进我们在中组织尺度（即微生物和全球之间的中间）对地球生物学的理解，并将产生新的策略来测试驱动进化的各种因素。这项研究的结果将为开发新的地球生命进化预测模型提供基础步骤，这些模型可以应用于更深的时间尺度和其他地球生物系统。本项目由地球科学部地球科学前沿研究项目和环境生物学部进化过程集群共同资助。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。

A primary goal of research in earth and biological sciences is to understand how diverse processes such as tectonic activity, rainfall gradients, and glacially driven climate cycles shape evolution and biodiversity over time. The central Baja California peninsula, Mexico, hosts a previously documented pattern of genetic divergence between northern and southern populations that is observed in dozens of species, but the underlying controls on this divergence pattern are presently unknown. This project aims to test three processes that may control biodiversity along the 1000-km long peninsula, through an integrative study of geological, ecological and genomic datasets. One societal benefit of this work will be to leverage 'big data' and quantitatively integrate new types datasets for scientific discovery. Among other benefits, the PIs will mentor and train postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students in best practices of transdisciplinary research that are necessary to keep the U.S. globally competitive in innovation. This work will include collaboration with Mexican scientists and will be coordinated with two other studies in central Baja California that are currently funded by NSF. The team will create a series of short training videos to demonstrate common fieldwork techniques, and a set of animations to summarize the geological and biological history of Baja California with the goal of communicating interdisciplinary geo-biological concepts to non-specialists. The PIs will host a community workshop to advance Earth-Life research, and implement an art-science collaborative course between Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.This study will test three hypotheses to explain a previously documented pattern of north-south genetic divergence across the central Baja California peninsula: (1) populations were isolated by a physical barrier (marine seaway) in the mid-Peninsular region during Pliocene time; (2) Pleistocene glaciations isolated populations in refugia; and (3) monsoon-driven differences in rainfall timing isolated species through asynchronous reproduction and/or differential adaptation to precipitation regimes. The team will map and date structural, stratigraphic, and volcanic features in the mid-Peninsular region where the divergence occurs; use modern geochronologic methods to constrain the timing of deposition, volcanism, deformation and uplift; evaluate low-coverage genomes of angiosperms, reptiles, and mammals to assess population genomic signatures, loci under local adaptation, and spatial patterns of allelic variation; assess seasonal gene expression; develop niche models for modern and glacial climates; and test for present-day niche divergence. This study will embrace geological and climatic complexity to understand extrinsic factors that control genome evolution and diversification, and explore how biological evolution can be driven by multiple co-occurring processes through time (pseudocongruence). Our approach uses cutting-edge geological, biological and statistical methods within an evolutionary framework to integrate organismal genomic evolution with co-occurring changes in the physical environment. These findings will advance our understanding of geobiology at meso-organizational scales (i.e., intermediate between microbial and global), and will generate new strategies to test for diverse factors that drive evolution. Results of this research will provide foundational steps toward developing new predictive models of Earth-Life evolution that can be applied to deeper timescales and other geobiological systems. This project is jointly funded by the Frontier Research in Earth Sciences Program in the Division of Earth Sciences and the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology.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.