CAREER: Fossil Amber Insight Into Macroevolutionary Dynamics in an Ecologically Diverse Island System

职业：化石琥珀洞察生态多样化岛屿系统中的宏观进化动力学

• 批准号: 2144915
• 负责人: Phillip Barden
• 金额: $ 92.84万
• 依托单位: New Jersey Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-01 至 2027-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2144915&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Fossil; Amber; Insight; Into

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Fossils provide direct evidence for the processes that shape ecosystems and biodiversity over long periods of history on earth. In particular, the fossil record has helped us better understand past extinctions and ecological changes, which are increasingly relevant to a rapidly changing planet. At the same time, the fossil record is highly incomplete, and it can be difficult to unify our understanding of ecosystems across long periods of time spanning millions of years. This project seeks to synthesize information from data-rich fossil and modern communities in a unique island system to reveal broadly applicable patterns and processes that are responsible for maintaining biodiversity. This research focuses on ants and ant communities of Hispaniola, which are both preserved in high detail in the amber fossil record and highly diverse on the island today. This synthesis will address key questions including: Why do some organisms go extinct while others persist over long periods of time? How predictable are changes in ecosystems and communities across long periods of time? How quickly do these changes occur? Knowledge and data resulting from this research will be used in the creation of K-12 educational materials, which will be developed through interdisciplinary collaborations between industrial design and biology undergraduates. Educational products will be widely disseminated in schools and museums in the U.S. and Dominican Republic. The project will produce biological, ecological, and analytical resources for researchers locally and worldwide. It will provide research and educational opportunities at the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels with inclusive mentoring.The project will build a comprehensive dataset for the entire fossil and extant ant communities on Hispaniola, with a total of ~250 species collectively. Project activities will integrate taxonomy, systematics, morphology, high-resolution CT-scan imaging, genome-scale molecular data, phylogenetics, supervised machine learning, and phylogenetic comparative methods. Research is specimen-based and will utilize and contribute to multiple museum collections. Data derived from fossil and extant taxa will be used to test interrelated hypotheses related to extinction selectivity, faunal turnover, and the role of macroevolutionary processes in community assembly. All project products, including datasets, will be made publicly available, and open-access resources will be produced for future researchers. Educational products from the project comprise tactile lesson plans and active learning projects that will reach underserved communities and encourage participation in STEM career pathways. This inclusion work will be further supported through a high school to postdoctoral mentoring pipeline with the goal of recruiting and retaining diverse students in biological research.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.

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。化石为地球上长期历史上塑造生态系统和生物多样性的过程提供了直接证据。特别是，化石记录帮助我们更好地了解过去的灭绝和生态变化，这与快速变化的地球越来越相关。与此同时，化石记录是非常不完整的，很难统一我们对跨越数百万年的长期生态系统的理解。该项目旨在综合来自独特岛屿系统中数据丰富的化石和现代社区的信息，以揭示负责维持生物多样性的广泛适用的模式和过程。这项研究的重点是伊斯帕尼奥拉岛的蚂蚁和蚂蚁群落，它们都保存在琥珀化石记录中，并且在今天的岛上高度多样化。这一综合将解决关键问题，包括：为什么有些生物会灭绝，而另一些生物会长期存在？在很长一段时间内，生态系统和社区的变化有多大的可预测性？这些变化发生得有多快？这项研究产生的知识和数据将用于创建K-12教育材料，这些材料将通过工业设计和生物学本科生之间的跨学科合作开发。教育产品将在美国和多米尼加共和国的学校和博物馆广泛传播。该项目将为当地和世界各地的研究人员提供生物，生态和分析资源。该项目将为高中、本科、研究生和博士后提供研究和教育机会，并提供包容性的指导。该项目将为伊斯帕尼奥拉岛上的整个化石和现存蚂蚁群落建立一个全面的数据集，共有约250种物种。项目活动将整合分类学，系统学，形态学，高分辨率CT扫描成像，基因组规模的分子数据，生物遗传学，监督机器学习和系统发育比较方法。研究是以博物馆为基础的，将利用和促进多个博物馆的收藏。来自化石和现存类群的数据将被用来测试相关的假设灭绝的选择性，动物区系营业额，和宏观进化过程中的作用，在社会集会。所有项目产品，包括数据集，都将公开提供，并将为未来的研究人员提供开放获取的资源。该项目的教育产品包括触觉课程计划和主动学习项目，这些项目将覆盖服务不足的社区，并鼓励参与STEM职业道路。这一包容性工作将通过一个高中到博士后指导管道得到进一步支持，目标是招募和留住生物研究领域的多样化学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

The first fossil replete ant worker establishes living food storage in the Eocene

第一个充满化石的工蚁在始新世建立了活体食物储存库

• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Myrmecological news
• 影响因子: 4.1
• 作者: Sawh, Indira;Bae, Eunice;Camilo, Luciana;Lanan, Michele;Lucky, Andrea;Morais Menezes, Henrique;Fiorentino, Gianpiero;Sosiak, Christine;Khadempour, Lily;Barden, Phillip
• 通讯作者: Barden, Phillip

Community form, function and phylogenetic diversity respond differently across microhabitat and recovery gradients

• DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13934
• 发表时间: 2023-07-01
• 期刊: JOURNAL OF ANIMAL ECOLOGY
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Barden，Phillip