Collaborative Research: BEE: Impacts of abiotic environment, pathogen resistance and Pre-Columbian human management on Neotropical canopy palm abundances

合作研究：BEE：非生物环境、病原体抗性和前哥伦布时期人类管理对新热带树冠棕榈丰度的影响

• 批准号: 2039850
• 负责人: Miles Silman
• 金额: $ 29.55万
• 依托单位: Wake Forest University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2039850&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; BEE; Impacts; abiotic

In tropical rainforests, local abundances of closely related tree species can vary by several orders of magnitude, providing a compelling context in which to revisit a core theme in ecology: why is it that some species are extremely common, while others are rare? This project seeks to answer this question in South American canopy palm trees, a diverse group that includes several geographically widespread species that vary in degree of usefulness to humans and in patterns of abundance. The research seeks to quantify the relative and combined influences of ecological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic processes on palm abundances. The research is expected to advance scientific knowledge by integrating perspectives from separate disciplines to achieve a more synthetic understanding of how human, ecological, and evolutionary impacts interact to shape biotic systems. The project has important societal and economic implications because palms provide food, income, and material for basic needs for millions of humans around the globe. Educational films and teaching modules produced during the project are expected to be used by thousands of high school and college students in the United States. Graduate and undergraduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and high school teachers will receive training.The research employs a multi-scale sampling design to link local ecological and microevolutionary processes to landscape patterns of abundance to test two major hypotheses: 1) that effective defenses via resistance genes (R genes) give common species the ability to escape negative density dependence, and 2) that human management over the past several millennia has promoted the abundances of useful species. This is achieved by combining contemporary genomic analysis and aerial imaging and machine learning capable of identifying and mapping individual canopy trees over vast areas. Regular censuses provide information on survival of adults and seedlings of focal species in relation to local abundances, and a nursery experiment will further explore relationships between R gene diversity and seedling survival. The project also tests potential impacts of Pre-Columbian humans on contemporary tree populations using paleo-ecological sampling of soil cores, including charcoal and phytolith sampling, while accounting for abiotic environment. This approach is expected to shed light on the relative and combined impacts of negative density dependence, abiotic environment, and Pre-Columbian human management, all thought to influence abundance in some way but typically treated in isolation.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.

在热带雨林中，当地密切相关的树种的丰度可以相差几个数量级，这为重新审视生态学的一个核心主题提供了一个令人信服的背景：为什么有些物种非常常见，而另一些物种则非常罕见？该项目试图在南美洲树冠棕榈树中回答这个问题，这是一个多样化的群体，包括几个地理分布广泛的物种，这些物种对人类的有用程度和丰富程度各不相同。该研究旨在量化生态，进化和人为过程对棕榈丰富度的相对和综合影响。该研究预计将通过整合来自不同学科的观点来推进科学知识，以实现对人类，生态和进化影响如何相互作用以塑造生物系统的更综合的理解。该项目具有重要的社会和经济意义，因为棕榈树为地球仪各地数百万人提供食物、收入和基本需求。该项目期间制作的教育影片和教学模块预计将被美国数千名高中和大学生使用。研究生和本科生，博士后研究员和高中教师将接受培训。该研究采用多尺度抽样设计，将当地生态和微进化过程与丰富的景观格局联系起来，以测试两个主要假设：1）通过抗性基因（R基因）的有效防御使普通物种能够逃避负密度依赖，（2）过去几千年的人类管理促进了有用物种的丰富。 这是通过结合当代基因组分析、航空成像和机器学习来实现的，机器学习能够识别和绘制广阔地区的个体树冠树。定期普查提供的资料，成年人和幼苗的生存重点物种在当地的丰度，苗圃实验将进一步探讨R基因多样性和幼苗生存之间的关系。 该项目还测试了前哥伦布时期人类对当代树木种群的潜在影响，使用土芯的古生态采样，包括木炭和植硅石采样，同时考虑到非生物环境。这种方法有望揭示负密度依赖，非生物环境和前哥伦布人类管理的相对和综合影响，所有这些都被认为以某种方式影响丰度，但通常被孤立对待。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。