COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Phylogenomics, spatial phylogenetics and conservation prioritization in trapdoor spiders (and kin) of the California Floristic Province

加州植物区系省是一个全球生物多样性热点，从俄勒冈州西南部延伸到下加利福尼亚西北部，拥有许多独特的植物和动物物种。许多因素，包括干旱和不断变化的火灾制度，构成了重大威胁的物种限制在加州植物区系省。这些威胁对于那些很少移动的动物来说可能是最大的，或者发生在特殊的栖息地，例如Mygalomorph蜘蛛（狼蛛，陷阱门蜘蛛及其亲属）。加州有超过70种的糠虾，保守估计还有数十种有待发现。该项目将建立mygalomorph地点，以便长期观察和测量种群规模的趋势，开发利用遗传数据区分物种的新方法，并确定加州景观中特别富含mygalomorph物种和其他分类群的地区。这些数据将有重要的影响，保护优先级，并将告知科学家的进化过程，有助于巨大的物种多样性在加州植物区系省。该项目将培训学生和其他研究人员在标本收集，策展，并在遗传数据生成和计算分析的技术。研究经验和专业咨询也将提供给选择社区大学学生从代表性不足的群体谁计划转移到四年制科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）课程。使用原始的实地考察相结合，新开发的分析方法，遗传识别物种及其进化和地理关系，本研究计画将发展活板门蜘蛛，作为加州植物区系省（CA-FP）生物多样性知识与保育的典范族群。长期调查将在多个地理位置进行，包括大多数主要的CA-FP栖息地类型。在这些地点，将测量蜘蛛物种的存在和每个地点的个体数量，为未来的监测工作提供统计基线。基于对数千个基因的分析，新的大型DNA数据集将通过分析这些物种的基因组来生成。将对这些数据应用新的方法来确定物种边界，并对所有新物种进行正式的分类学描述。关于这些新物种及其遗传关系的新信息将用于评估整个CA-FP复杂地理环境中该蜘蛛群的生物多样性模式。蜘蛛物种分布的地理模式的统计比较将CA-FP植物和脊椎动物，这些结果将被用来确定是否生物多样性的“热点”符合联邦，州和地方保护areas.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The California Floristic Province is a planetary biodiversity hotspot that extends from southwest Oregon to northwest Baja California and hosts many unique plant and animal species. Many factors, including drought and changing fire regimes, pose a significant threat to species restricted to the California Floristic Province. These threats are potentially greatest for animals that move very little, or occur in special habitats, such as mygalomorph spiders (tarantulas, trap-door spiders, and their kin). Over 70 species of mygalomorphs inhabit California, and conservative estimates indicate dozens of additional species that await discovery. This project will establish mygalomorph localities for long-term observation and measurement of trends in population sizes, develop new methods of using genetic data to distinguish species from one another, and identify areas of the California landscape that are particularly rich in mygalomorph species and other taxa. These data will have important implications for conservation prioritization and will inform scientists about the evolutionary processes that have contributed to tremendous species diversity in the California Floristic Province. This project will train students and other researchers in specimen collection, curation, and techniques in genetic data generation and computational analysis. Research experience and specialized advising will also be offered to select community college students from underrepresented groups who plan to transfer to four-year Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) programs.Using a combination of original fieldwork, newly developed analytical methods for genetically identifying species and their evolutionary and geographic relationships, this research project will develop trapdoor spiders as an exemplary group for biodiversity knowledge and conservation in the California Floristic Province (CA-FP). Long-term surveys will be conducted at multiple geographic locations that include most major CA-FP habitat types. At these sites, the presence of spider species and the numbers of individuals in each will be measured to provide a statistical baseline for future monitoring efforts. New large DNA datasets, based on analysis of thousands of genes, will be generated by analysis of the genomes of these species. New methods will be applied to this data to identify species boundaries, and formal taxonomic descriptions will be made for all new species. The new information about these new species and their genetic relationships will be used to assess patterns of biodiversity in this spider group across the complex geography of the CA-FP. Statistical comparisons of the geographic patterns of spider species distribution will be made to CA-FP plants and vertebrates, and these results will be used to determine whether biodiversity “hotspots” coincide with federal, state, and locally protected areas.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.