NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Are the Consequences of Wildlife Extirpation in Tropical Forests Reshaping the Drivers of Plant Mortality?

美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后奖学金：热带森林野生动物灭绝的后果是否重塑了植物死亡的驱动因素？

• 批准号: 2209070
• 负责人: Justine Lamperty
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Lamperty, Justine Therese
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209070&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Consequences

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Tropical forests hold more species than any other ecosystem. Unfortunately, human activities are reducing the number of large- and medium-sized animals in these forests, a phenomenon called defaunation. Losing these animals eliminates their interactions with plants and other animals, which means that defaunation can trigger a cascade of changes in how tropical forests are functioning. One example of this is that defaunation leads to the loss of many fruit-eating animals that disperse seeds, an important part of forest regeneration. When taken together, changes that are occurring as tropical forests become defaunated may alter factors determining the diversity and survival dynamics of plants in these important and biodiverse ecosystems. This project will investigate if, how, and to what extent defaunation may be doing this through multiple experiments set up in defaunated and intact tropical forests in Ecuador. Further, this project facilitates ecological and conservation education through outreach, training, and mentoring to diverse audiences that include high school and undergraduate students, young scientists, and members of the public.The central mechanism maintaining the unmatched plant diversity in the tropics is thought to be negative density-dependent mortality, by which spatially aggregated plant individuals, particularly conspecific and especially related individuals, face heightened attacks from a suite of plant-enemies (e.g., fungal pathogens, insect and vertebrate herbivores, and seed predators). By triggering multiple ecological cascades, defaunation may directly and indirectly affect the impacts these plant enemies have. For example, one consequence of defaunation is decreased seed dispersal services resulting in lower plant genetic diversity, potentially also reducing the diversity of genes important for mounting defenses against pathogens. This project investigates if defaunation alters the drivers of seed and seedling mortality, thereby reshaping what structures plant diversity in tropical forests. This research compares multiple defaunated and faunally-intact sites and integrates experimental manipulations (e.g., treatments that exclude specific groups of plant enemies) with genomics to mechanistically understand how the relative and overall strengths of different plant enemies change under defaunation. The Fellow will develop several new skills including competence in genomics and bioinformatics. Broader impacts include working with local high school students from minority backgrounds through science internships and workshops.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.

这一行动为NSF 2022财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。热带森林比任何其他生态系统都拥有更多的物种。不幸的是，人类活动正在减少这些森林中的大中型动物的数量，这一现象被称为违约。失去这些动物会消除它们与植物和其他动物的互动，这意味着违约可能会引发热带森林如何运作的一系列变化。这方面的一个例子是，违约导致许多以水果为食的动物的损失，这些动物散布种子，这是森林再生的重要组成部分。综合起来看，随着热带森林缺水而发生的变化可能会改变决定这些重要和生物多样性生态系统中植物的多样性和生存动态的因素。该项目将通过在厄瓜多尔违约和完好的热带森林中建立的多个实验来调查违约是否、如何以及在多大程度上可能造成这种情况。此外，该项目通过向包括高中生和本科生、青年科学家和公众在内的不同受众提供推广、培训和指导，促进生态和保护教育。维持热带地区无与伦比的植物多样性的主要机制被认为是负密度依赖死亡，在空间上聚集的植物个体，特别是同种和特别相关的个体，面临着一系列植物敌人(例如真菌病原体、昆虫和脊椎动物草食动物以及种子捕食者)的高度攻击。通过触发多个生态级联，违约可能直接和间接影响这些植物天敌的影响。例如，违约的一个后果是种子传播服务减少，导致植物遗传多样性降低，潜在地也减少了对加强对病原体的防御的重要基因的多样性。该项目调查违约是否会改变种子和幼苗死亡的驱动因素，从而重塑热带森林植物多样性的结构。这项研究比较了多个缺省和区系完好的地点，并将实验操作(例如，排除特定植物天敌群体的处理)与基因组学相结合，以机械地了解不同植敌在缺省情况下相对和整体实力的变化。这位研究员将发展几项新技能，包括基因组学和生物信息学方面的能力。更广泛的影响包括通过科学实习和工作室与当地少数族裔背景的高中生合作。这一奖项反映了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。