PurSUiT: Collaborative Research: Accelerating Lineage Discovery to Document Neotropical Fern Diversity

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Understanding the diversity and distribution of species on Earth is important for many reasons, but the process of documenting and describing biodiversity often cannot keep up with the rate of habitat loss and the extinction of species. This is especially true in tropical regions of the world, where the number of undescribed and poorly known species is highest and biodiversity is most severely threatened. This research aims to contribute to documentation of Earth’s plant diversity by studying the diversity of ferns in Colombia, one of the most species-rich countries on Earth. In this work, the researchers will document fern diversity by conducting surveys in remote parts of the country that have been poorly explored by scientists, as well as studying specimens of ferns in museum collections. This project will improve our understanding of how many fern species exist in Colombia, where they occur, and how many of them are threatened with extinction. This project will also result in the description of species that are new to science and provide insights into the origins of plant diversity by reconstructing the evolutionary history of ferns through analysis of DNA sequences. An important contribution of this work will be the creation of a freely accessible online database that will organize data on ferns in Colombia and help future researchers to study these plants. This project will also provide training for two graduate students and more than a dozen undergraduate students in biodiversity research and will improve scientific collaboration. Findings of this research will be shared with the public through partnerships with schools, freely available online videos, and displays at a botanical garden in the United States. This research will document diversity of ferns in Colombia through a unified taxonomic and evolutionary context using a multi-faceted approach. First, gaps in the current understanding of species distributions in Colombia will be addressed through field expeditions to understudied regions of Colombia that are predicted to harbor high levels of fern diversity, complemented by targeted study of herbarium specimens at major herbaria. Second, in order to improve accessibility of data on Colombia ferns, resources for an existing online database will be bolstered, producing a data-rich, publicly available, specimen-driven taxonomic resource for fern diversity research in the American tropics. This resource will include a searchable specimen database, multi-entry keys to families and genera, and specimen-driven national and regional checklists. Third, to better understand Colombian fern diversity within an evolutionary context, genomic resources will be generated for all fern species in Colombia, including a DNA and leaf-tissue bank for all collections, ploidy estimates, and target capture sequence data to conduct comprehensive phylogenomic analyses. Finally, these data will be integrated to detect and describe yet-overlooked diversity, including complete taxonomic treatments for four prominent and complex genera.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.