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

加州植物区是地球生物多样性的热点，从俄勒冈州西南部延伸到下加利福尼亚州西北部，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，对仅限于加州植物省的物种构成了重大威胁。这些威胁对于很少移动的动物或发生在特殊栖息地的动物来说是潜在的最大威胁，例如mygalomorph蜘蛛（狼蛛，陷阱门蜘蛛及其亲属）。超过70种mygalomorphs栖息在加利福尼亚，保守估计还有几十种等待发现。该项目将建立mygalomorph的位置，用于长期观察和测量种群大小的趋势，开发利用遗传数据区分物种的新方法，并确定加州景观中mygalomorph物种和其他分类群特别丰富的区域。这些数据将对保护的优先次序有重要的意义，并将告诉科学家进化过程，这些过程对加利福尼亚植物区系省巨大的物种多样性做出了贡献。这个项目将训练学生和其他研究人员在标本收集、管理和基因数据生成和计算分析方面的技术。研究经验和专业建议也将提供给那些计划转到四年制科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业的弱势群体的社区大学学生。本研究项目将利用原始的田野调查和新开发的物种遗传鉴定分析方法及其进化和地理关系，将陷门蜘蛛作为加利福尼亚植物区系省（CA-FP）生物多样性知识和保护的典范群体。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，将测量蜘蛛种类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。通过对这些物种的基因组进行分析，将产生基于对数千个基因分析的新的大型DNA数据集。将采用新的方法对这些数据进行物种边界识别，并对所有新物种进行正式的分类描述。有关这些新物种及其遗传关系的新信息将用于评估该蜘蛛类群在CA-FP复杂地理环境中的生物多样性模式。蜘蛛物种分布的地理模式将与CA-FP植物和脊椎动物进行统计比较，这些结果将用于确定生物多样性“热点”是否与联邦、州和地方保护区一致。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。

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.