Patterns of community assembly and evolution of body size variation in the Accipiter-complex, a cosmopolitan hawk clade

鹰复合体（一个世界性鹰分支）的群落组装模式和体型变化的进化

• 批准号: 2203228
• 负责人: Therese Catanach
• 金额: $ 40万
• 依托单位: Academy of Natural Sciences Philadelphia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-15 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2203228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Patterns; community; assembly; evolution; body

Although hawks are among the most charismatic bird groups, we know surprisingly little about how species of hawks are related to each other, how their communities have assembled over earths history, and even how many species there are on our planet. In particular, hawks that live on remote islands are poorly known and many are considered members of single widespread species, yet several of the island dwelling hawk populations are sufficiently distinct that they should be considered separate species unique to these islands. Using next generation DNA sequencing, this research is determining how many species of hawks coexist with one another and how the species are related. The researchers are using these data to determine whether the hawk communities on islands assembled over earth’s history via a single colonization followed by diversification or whether multiple hawk lineages independently colonized the same islands. By comparing the observed patterns across oceanic islands to the patterns of community assembly of hawks on mainland regions, this project will identify differences between how communities are created in these two types of landforms. This project is among the first to reconstruct community assembly patterns of a globally distributed bird group. Lastly, the team is examining over 10,000 hawk specimens from around the world to place hawks into functional ecological groups and identify natural history characteristics (such as typical prey types), which are unknown for many of the rarer hawk species. The researchers are partnering with The Women in Natural Sciences (WINS) program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University to expose female high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds to STEM fields. The team is coleading hawk-watching field trips for all participants, and each summer a WINS student is working on the project as a research assistant on the project. This project is also supporting the early career development of the lead PI, a Hispanic American. Both PIs are researchers at a large public museum and are disseminating project results at public outreach events. Lastly, by identifying islands and regions harboring unique species, conservation resources can be better directed towards the areas or species in greatest need. Reconstructing the patterns and processes of community assembly are critical for understanding the ecology and evolution of biotas. Communities can be formed in several ways and one prediction is that communities on oceanic islands are assembled via clustering (a single dispersal followed by speciation), whereas continental communities are assembled via multiple dispersal events. The Accipiter hawk complex includes approximately 180 currently valid, named taxa (species and subspecies) that occur on both continental and island land masses. Even on remote islands, multiple behaviorally and ecologically similar, but variably sized Accipiter-complex hawk taxa are found in the same ecological communities making this hawk complex an ideal group for testing community assembly patterns on a globally distributed group. This project includes four objectives: 1) reconstruction of a subspecies level phylogeny of the Accipiter-complex, 2) identification of geographic regions with multiple Accipiter-complex members overlapping in geographic distribution, 3) characterization of size and natural history classes of these hawks based on morphological examination, 4) identification of community assembly patterns in the Accipiter-complex. To accomplish these objectives, the researchers are sequencing genomes to reconstruct a phylogeny for all currently recognized subspecies within the complex using existing specimens, creating detailed range maps for each Accipiter-complex member, and reconstructing community assembly patterns for this complex across the globe.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.

虽然鹰是最有魅力的鸟类之一，但我们对鹰的物种之间的关系，它们的群落在地球历史上是如何聚集的，甚至我们这个星球上有多少物种，都知之甚少。特别是，生活在偏远岛屿的鹰知之甚少，许多被认为是单一广泛分布的物种，但岛上居住的鹰种群中有几个是足够不同的，它们应该被认为是这些岛屿特有的独立物种。使用下一代DNA测序，这项研究正在确定有多少种鹰彼此共存，以及这些物种是如何相关的。 研究人员正在利用这些数据来确定岛屿上的鹰群落是通过单一殖民地随后多样化而聚集在地球历史上，还是多个鹰谱系独立地殖民同一岛屿。通过比较在海洋岛屿上观察到的模式与大陆地区鹰的群落聚集模式，该项目将确定在这两种地形中如何创建群落之间的差异。该项目是第一个重建全球分布的鸟类群体的社区组装模式的项目之一。最后，该团队正在检查来自世界各地的10，000多个鹰标本，将鹰放入功能生态组，并确定自然历史特征（例如典型的猎物类型），这些特征对于许多稀有的鹰物种来说是未知的。研究人员正在与德雷克塞尔大学自然科学院的自然科学女性（Women in Natural Sciences）项目合作，让来自弱势背景的女高中生接触STEM领域。该团队正在为所有参与者共同领导观察鹰的实地考察，每年夏天，一名研究生作为该项目的研究助理参与该项目。该项目还支持首席PI（一位西班牙裔美国人）的早期职业发展。这两名PI都是一家大型公共博物馆的研究人员，并在公共宣传活动中传播项目成果。最后，通过确定拥有独特物种的岛屿和地区，可以更好地将保护资源用于最需要的地区或物种。重建群落聚集的模式和过程对于理解生物群落的生态学和进化至关重要。群落可以通过多种方式形成，一种预测是，海洋岛屿上的群落是通过集群（一次扩散，然后是物种形成）组装的，而大陆群落是通过多次扩散事件组装的。鹰复合体包括大约180个目前有效的，命名的分类群（种和亚种），发生在大陆和岛屿陆块。即使在偏远的岛屿上，多个行为和生态相似，但规模庞大的鹰复杂的鹰类群被发现在相同的生态社区，使这鹰复杂的一个理想的群体测试社区组装模式在全球分布的组。该项目包括四个目标：1）重建鹰复合体的亚种水平的系统发育，2）识别具有多个鹰复合体成员在地理分布上重叠的地理区域，3）基于形态学检查表征这些鹰的大小和自然历史类别，4）识别鹰复合体中的群落聚集模式。为了实现这些目标，研究人员正在对基因组进行测序，以利用现有标本重建该复合体中所有目前公认的亚种的亲缘关系，为每个鹰复合体成员创建详细的范围图，并在地球仪上为这个综合体重建社区集会模式。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。