CAREER: Integrating Western Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to Understand Aphonopelma Diversity Across the Madrean Sky Islands and Educate K-12 Tribal Students

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。适应气候变化是地球生命面临的根本挑战。当生物被迫迁移去寻找适宜生存的栖息地时，一些物种会离开不再适宜生存的地区，向新的地区扩张，或者它们会灭绝。这些事件正在北美的马德兰松橡树林地上演，这是一个生物多样性的热点，随着气温的升高和降水的减少，当地的生物进一步向山上迁移。天空之岛是进化研究的天然实验室，因为每个天空之岛都可以被认为是一个复制品，每个都代表着正在进行的自然实验的一个时间点。由于世界上五分之一的无脊椎动物面临灭绝的危险，那些行动能力有限的物种，比如长寿的狼蛛——美国唯一的狼蛛属——尤其值得关注。如果这些物种在被发现之前就灭绝了，那么这种生物多样性知识将永远消失。本研究将对海岛生物地理学理论和马德兰松栎林地生物多样性热点的进化历史有重要的启示。重要的是，这个生物多样性热点是在阿帕奇和托霍诺奥哈姆人民的主权土地上发现的。这片土地，它的地质和动植物为这些部落提供了重要的科学和文化知识（传统生态知识- TEK）。通过数千年的土地生活，部落对人与环境之间的相互关系有了深入的了解（例如，气候变化如何改变了季节模式和天空岛生物多样性的分布）。这项研究的目标是整合西方科学和TEK，以更好地了解导致Aphonopelma蜘蛛在整个天空岛屿上显著辐射的进化模式和过程，以及未来气候变化将如何影响这种多样性。该项目的教育部分将为圣卡洛斯阿帕奇K-12学生开发一个独特的STEM项目，将他们的TEK与现代研究相结合，向他们展示如何成为下一代部落自然资源的保护者。这项研究想要回答的首要问题是，马德兰群岛是否一直是北美狼蛛多样性的发源地。具体来说，这项研究将使用基因组数据来了解天空岛麻风物种是一次进化还是多次进化。这将使研究人员能够确定当物种进入天空岛并通过适应新的栖息地而多样化时，基因组发生了哪些有利的变化，以及天空岛物种是否能够适应全球气候变化。最后，研究人员将与圣卡洛斯阿帕奇长老合作，向部落K-12学生展示如何将TEK和西方科学结合起来，更好地了解他们周围的世界。这种联合努力将带领学生进入不同的天空岛屿范围收集标本，并将生物与土地及其TEK联系起来。在课堂上，这次合作将使用“乐高DNA测序仪”来教授学生DNA和遗传学知识，并向学生介绍基因组测序和生物信息学。该项目将产生具有重大科学影响的变革性成果，使我们了解气候变化已经并将如何影响生物多样性热点地区的遗传多样性，并将在这一过程中纳入科学界代表性最不足的群体——土著人民。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Adapting to climate change is a fundamental challenge for life on Earth. As organisms are forced to move in search of hospitable habitat, species leave areas no longer favorable and expand into new areas, or they go extinct. These events are playing out across North America’s Madrean Pine-Oak woodlands, a biodiversity hotspot, as increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation push the endemic organisms further up the mountains. The sky islands are natural laboratories perfect for evolutionary studies because each sky island can be thought of as a replicate, with each representing a time point in an ongoing natural experiment. With one-fifth of the world’s invertebrates at risk for extinction, species with a limited ability to move, like the long-lived Aphonopelma – the only tarantula genus in the United States - are of particular concern. If these species are lost to extinction before discovery, this biodiversity knowledge will be lost forever. This research will inform our understanding of island biogeography theory and the evolutionary history of the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands biodiversity hotspot. Importantly, this biodiversity hotspot is found within the sovereign land of the Apache and Tohono O’odham peoples. This land, its geology, and the flora and fauna holds significant scientific and cultural knowledge (Traditional Ecological Knowledge – TEK) for these tribes. Gained through thousands of years of living with the land, tribes have an intimate understanding of the interconnections between people and the environment (e.g., how climate change has altered the seasonal patterns and distributions of sky island biodiversity). The goal of this research is to integrate Western science and TEK to better understand the evolutionary patterns and processes that led to the remarkable radiation of Aphonopelma spiders throughout the sky islands, and how climate change is going to impact this diversity in the future. The education component of this project will develop a unique STEM program for San Carlos Apache K-12 students that integrates their TEK with modern research to show them how they can become the next generation of protectors of their tribe’s natural resources.The overarching question this research looks to answer is whether the Madrean Archipelago has been a generator for North American tarantula diversity. Specifically, this research will use genome data to understand if the sky island Aphonopelma species evolved once or many times. This will allow the researchers to determine what advantageous changes in the genome occurred when species moved into the sky islands and diversified by adapting to new habitats, and whether sky island species will be able to adapt to global climate change. Lastly, the researchers will work with San Carlos Apache elders to show tribal K-12 students how TEK and Western science can be utilized together to better understand the world around them. This combined effort will take students into the different sky island ranges to collect specimens and link the organisms with the land and their TEK. In the classroom, this collaboration will use a “LEGO DNA sequencer” to teach the students about DNA and genetics and introduce students to genome sequencing and bioinformatics. This project will produce transformative results with high scientific impact by informing our understanding of how climate change has and will affect the genetic diversity of a biodiversity hotspot, as well as by including the most underrepresented group in the sciences, Native peoples, in this process.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.