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

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。适应气候变化是地球上生命面临的一个根本挑战。随着生物被迫迁徙以寻找适宜居住的栖息地，物种离开不再有利的地区，扩展到新的地区，否则就会灭绝。这些事件正在北美的马德里安松橡树林地上演，这是一个生物多样性的热点地区，因为不断上升的气温和不断减少的降雨量将特有的生物进一步推向山上。天空岛是进化研究的完美天然实验室，因为每个天空岛都可以被认为是重复的，每个都代表着正在进行的自然实验中的一个时间点。由于世界上五分之一的无脊椎动物面临灭绝的危险，行动能力有限的物种尤其令人担忧，比如长寿的狼蛛--美国唯一的狼蛛属。如果这些物种在发现之前就灭绝了，这种生物多样性知识将永远失去。这项研究将有助于我们了解岛屿生物地理学理论和马德里安松树林地生物多样性热点的演化史。重要的是，这个生物多样性热点是在阿帕奇人和托霍诺·奥奥德姆人的主权土地上发现的。这片土地、它的地质和动植物拥有这些部落的重要科学和文化知识(传统生态知识-TEK)。通过数千年与土地的生活，部落对人与环境之间的相互联系有了深入的了解(例如，气候变化如何改变了天空岛屿生物多样性的季节模式和分布)。这项研究的目标是整合西方科学和TEK，以更好地了解导致Ahonopelma蜘蛛在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年级的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，向他们展示他们如何成为部落自然资源的下一代保护者。这项研究的首要问题是，马德里安群岛是否产生了北美狼蛛的多样性。具体地说，这项研究将使用基因组数据来了解天空岛Ahonopelma物种是一次还是多次进化。这将使研究人员能够确定当物种迁入天空岛屿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，以及天空岛屿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K-12部落的学生展示如何将TEK和西方科学结合在一起，以更好地了解他们周围的世界。这一联合努力将把学生带到不同的天空岛屿范围内收集标本，并将生物与陆地和他们的TEK联系起来。在课堂上，这项合作将用一台《乐高DNA测序仪》向学生讲授DNA和遗传学知识，并向学生介绍基因组测序和生物信息学。该项目将产生具有高度科学影响的变革性成果，通过告知我们对气候变化如何已经并将如何影响生物多样性热点的理解，以及通过将科学界最不具代表性的群体--原住民纳入这一过程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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。

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.