NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Individual and population-level effects of water in a tritrophic system: impacts on pollination, herbivory, and parasitism

2020 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：三营养系统中水对个体和群体水平的影响：对授粉、食草和寄生的影响

• 批准号: 2010845
• 负责人: Wilnelia Recart Gonzalez
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Recart Gonzalez, Wilnelia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2010845&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Plants are essential in maintaining the food supply and in the conservation of natural ecosystems. In agricultural and natural systems, plants do not live in isolation; they are affected by interactions with other species and by physical conditions. The research will examine how ecological interactions including pollination and disease combine with water availability to affect a plant species, a butterfly species, whose caterpillars consume the plant, and a lethal virus that infects the caterpillars. The results will provide information on how drought, disease, and herbivorous insects affect the population dynamics of the interacting species. The broadening participation component of this proposal aims to promote excitement and curiosity of people for plant biology and shift current perceptions of scientists. The Fellow will broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in the sciences through outreach in the form of the development and implementation of bilingual (English and Spanish) educational materials. Educational content will be focused on plant ecology and be used to reach out to the large Spanish-speaking population of San Diego county. The Fellow will manipulate water availability to blue passionflower plants (Passiflora caerulea) and conduct controlled epidemics and infections of nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV) on the larval stage of gulf fritillary butterflies (Agraulis vanillae), to document the effects of water and the presence of NPV on the population dynamics of the interacting species, the pollination-related traits of the plant (P. caerulea), and the pollination-related traits of the adult pollinator (A. vanillae). This work will integrate experimental manipulations (controlled infections and epidemics) and mathematical models to generate a framework that considers the overarching impacts that water has on host-pathogen, plant-herbivore, and plant-pollinator interactions. These experimental manipulations will provide information on how drought and presence of NPV affect traits of the plants related to how they attract pollinating insects, such as the size and number of flowers, as well as traits of the adult butterflies that affect their ability to pollinate plants. To broaden the participation of under-represented groups in science, the Fellow will focus on generating outreach activities for the Spanish-speaking population of San Diego, California with the aim to increase knowledge about the importance of plant research in everyday life. This will be achieved by working with K-12 students in Spanish dual-language immersion programs and a wider non-academic Spanish-speaking audience that attends Hispanic-related community events in San Diego.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.

这一行动资助了2020财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学领域代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。植物在维持食物供应和保护自然生态系统方面是必不可少的。在农业和自然系统中，植物不是孤立生活的；它们受到与其他物种的相互作用和物理条件的影响。这项研究将研究包括授粉和疾病在内的生态相互作用如何结合水的可获得性来影响一种植物物种，一种蝴蝶物种，其毛虫吞噬这种植物，以及一种感染毛虫的致命病毒。这些结果将提供干旱、疾病和食草性昆虫如何影响相互作用物种的种群动态的信息。这项提议的扩大参与部分旨在促进人们对植物生物学的兴奋和好奇心，并改变目前对科学家的看法。该研究员将通过编制和执行双语(英语和西班牙语)教材等形式的外联活动，扩大未被充分代表的少数群体在科学领域的参与。教育内容将集中在植物生态上，并用于接触圣地亚哥县说西班牙语的大量人口。该研究员将控制蓝色西番莲(Passiflora Caerulea)的水分供应，并在海湾贝母(Agraulis Vanillae)幼虫阶段控制核型多角体病毒(NPV)的流行和感染，以记录水和NPV的存在对相互作用物种的种群动态、植物(P.caerulea)授粉相关性状和成虫传粉者(A.vanillae)授粉相关性状的影响。这项工作将整合实验操作(受控感染和流行病)和数学模型，以生成一个框架，考虑水对宿主-病原体、植物-食草动物和植物-传粉者相互作用的总体影响。这些实验操作将提供有关干旱和NPV的存在如何影响植物的特征的信息，这些特征与它们如何吸引授粉昆虫有关，例如花的大小和数量，以及影响它们为植物授粉的成年蝴蝶的特征。为了扩大代表不足的群体对科学的参与，该研究员将专注于为加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥讲西班牙语的人口开展外联活动，目的是增加对植物研究在日常生活中重要性的知识。这将通过与参加西班牙语双语浸入式课程的K-12学生以及更广泛的非学术西班牙语观众参加圣迭戈与西班牙裔相关的社区活动来实现。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已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。