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，密切相关的树种的当地丰富性可能会因几个数量级而有所不同，这提供了令人信服的背景，在这种情况下，重新审视生态学的核心主题：为什么有些物种非常普遍，而另一些物种则很少见？该项目旨在在南美冠层棕榈树中回答这个问题，这是一个多元化的群体，其中包括几种地理上广泛的物种，这些物种在对人类的有用程度以及丰富的模式上有所不同。该研究旨在量化生态，进化和人为过程对棕榈丰度的相对和综合影响。预计这项研究将通过将观点从单独的学科整合到对人，生态和进化影响如何相互作用以塑造生物系统的方式来提高科学知识。该项目具有重要的社会和经济影响，因为手掌为全球数百万人类提供了粮食，收入和材料。预计该项目期间制作的教育电影和教学模块将被美国成千上万的高中和大学生使用。研究生和本科生，博士后研究员以及高中老师将接受培训。该研究采用多尺度抽样设计将当地的生态和微观进化过程与丰度的景观模式联系起来，以测试两个主要的假设：1）通过持续的能力（r基因）逃脱，并逃脱了跨度的差异，并逃脱了依赖的能力，并具有2个依赖性，并具有2个依赖性，并具有2个依赖性，并具有2个依赖性，并具有2个依赖性，并具有2个偏远的范围。有用物种的丰度。 这是通过结合现代基因组分析和空中成像和机器学习来实现的，能够识别和映射广阔地区的单个冠层树。常规的人口普查提供了有关成年人和焦点物种幼苗与局部丰度有关的信息，托儿所实验将进一步探索R基因多样性与幼苗生存之间的关系。 该项目还使用土壤核心的古生物学采样（包括木炭和植物学采样）来测试哥伦比亚前人类对当代树群的潜在影响，同时考虑了不生物的环境。预计这种方法可以阐明负密度依赖性，非生物环境和哥伦比亚前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了丰度，但通常会孤立地进行。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。