Behavior and the Evolution of Species Ranges

解释物种为什么出现在它们发生的地方，是生物学中的一个基本问题，对保护具有重要意义。物种范围并不是固定的：一些物种能够扩大它们的范围，并在新的栖息地取得成功。为什么物种范围有时会扩大，以及是什么因素推动了这种扩大，人们仍然知之甚少。这项研究将确定物种间行为和繁殖的综合影响--杂交--如何通过进入并迅速适应一个全新的栖息地来扩大物种的活动范围。了解这种范围的扩大对于应对入侵物种的风险以及为在全球气候变化下保护生物多样性的保护规划和政策制定提供信息都是重要的。此外，拟议的工作将支持PI的教育活动，包括指导K-12教师进行研究并制定基于研究活动的教案，培训K-12学生和本科生进行研究，以及在美国东南部最大的自然历史博物馆北卡罗来纳州自然科学博物馆举行公共推广活动。当山脉边缘的种群在灭绝之前无法适应新的栖息地时，物种范围的扩大是有限的。如果有助于扩散的行为与促进在新栖息地取得成功的特征相关联，并且行为促进来自当地适应的异种生物的基因流(通过杂交)，从而能够快速适应新的栖息地，行为可能会促进范围的扩大。值得注意的是，这两个因素并不是独立的：促进扩散的行为可能直接促进杂交，或者与那些促进扩散的行为相关联。这项拟议的工作将评估行为在一种适应草原的铁蹄蟾蜍物种扩展到完全不同的生物群--美国西南部沙漠--过程中所起的作用。通过实验室实验和对自然种群的实地调查，这项工作将实现三个目标：1)评估促进扩散行为作为范围扩展到新栖息地的潜在原因；2)确定促进扩散行为是否与与同系物进行适应性杂交的行为有关；以及3)检查杂交是否有助于适应新的栖息地。通过实现这些目标，拟议的工作将确定有助于扩散到新栖息地的行为是否与在该环境中提高成功的行为有关。这项拟议的工作将进一步确定，中介杂交的行为是否也促进了对新栖息地的扩展和适应。综上所述，这项工作将对行为在物种范围进化扩展中的假设作用提供关键测试。该项目由整合组织系统部门和环境生物学部门共同支持。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。

Explaining why species occur where they do is a fundamental problem in biology that has important implications for conservation. Species ranges are not fixed: some species are able to expand their ranges and succeed in new habitats. Why species ranges sometimes expand and what factors fuel those expansions remains poorly understood. This research will determine how the combined effects of behavior and breeding between species – hybridization – enable a species to expand its range by moving into and rapidly adapting to an entirely new habitat. Understanding such range expansions is important to both address the risks of invasive species and inform conservation planning and policy development for preserving biodiversity under global climate change. Moreover, the proposed work will support the PI’s educational activities, which will include mentoring K-12 teachers in research and developing lesson plans based on research activities, training K-12 students and undergraduates in research, and public outreach events at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the largest natural history museum in the southeastern USA.Species range expansion is limited when populations at the range edge fail to adapt to novel habitats before they go extinct. Behavior might facilitate range expansion if behaviors that contribute to dispersal are linked to traits that promote success in novel habitats, and behavior promotes gene flow from locally adapted heterospecifics (via hybridization) that enables rapid adaptation to novel habitats. Notably, the two factors are not independent: behaviors that promote dispersal might directly promote hybridization or be linked to those that do. This proposed work will evaluate the role of behavior in the expansion of a grassland-adapted species of spadefoot toad into an entirely different biome––the desert southwestern USA. Using laboratory experiments and field surveys of natural populations, the work will achieve three aims: 1) evaluate dispersal-promoting behaviors as a potential cause of range expansion into a novel habitat; 2) determine whether dispersal-promoting behaviors are associated with behavior that mediates adaptive hybridization with a congener, and 3) examine if hybridization facilitates adaptation to a novel habitat. By achieving these aims, the proposed work will establish whether behaviors that contribute to dispersal into novel habitat are associated with behavior that enhances success in that environment. The proposed work will further determine if behaviors that mediate hybridization also promote expansion into, and adaptation to, novel habitats. Taken together, this work will provide a critical test of behavior’s hypothesized role in the evolutionary expansion of a species range.This project is jointly supported between the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and the Division of Environmental Biology.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.