Collaborative Research: Are Bornean Areas of Endemism the Evolutionary Source of Southeast Asias Remarkable Terrestrial Biodiversity?

婆罗洲是东南亚最大、最古老的岛屿。它位于一个物种多样性高的地区的中心，受到越来越多的人类威胁。婆罗洲的生物多样性鲜为人知，但对附近的爪哇岛和苏门答腊岛的调查表明，这些岛屿是由独特的栖息地和物种组成的复杂拼凑而成。这种多样性是复杂的进化和地质历史的结果，由海平面的周期性下降驱动，形成了陆地桥梁，使岛屿之间的分散成为可能。该项目将解决婆罗洲是许多物种在该地区进化的重要来源的假设。了解婆罗洲在推动东南亚生物多样性方面的作用，对于为保护地球上最多样化和最受威胁的岛屿之一提供明确的战略至关重要。一个交流项目将为印尼和马来西亚的同事提供博物馆管理和物种鉴定方面的实践培训。社交媒体活动和现场博客将传播实时更新，覆盖100多万粉丝。该项目还将为研究生和博士后研究员提供培训和指导。以博物馆为基础的基因组分析与新的实地采集的样本相结合，将为验证婆罗洲通过其潜在的地方性地区或具有丰富地方性物种群落的地区对该地区的生物多样性作出重大贡献的假设提供基础。小型哺乳动物，如啮齿动物，将被用作范例模型，尽管这个项目的含义涵盖所有植物和动物群体。在北婆罗洲的六个地点进行的实地考察将增加目前存在于博物馆收藏中的标本，提供必要的样本来测试岛上七个假定的地方性区域的存在。所有标本将有数百个核基因和完整的线粒体基因组测序，以便在整个婆罗洲进行强大的采样，从而产生种内系统发育，从而进行统计分析，以评估基因组多样性模式，作为拟议的地方病地区的额外证据。除了通过更深入地了解婆罗洲的进化和生物地理历史来洞察保护策略之外，这项研究的结果将包括可能发现的新物种、分类修订和具有高质量组织的有价值的保证标本，这些标本将被保存在博物馆收藏中。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Borneo is the largest and oldest island in Southeast Asia. It sits in the middle of a region of high species diversity and is subject to increasing human threats. The biodiversity of Borneo is poorly known, but surveys of the nearby islands of Java and Sumatra have shown these islands to be a complex patchwork of unique habitats and species. This diversity is the result of a complex evolutionary and geological history driven by the periodic fall of sea levels, creating land bridges that enabled dispersal among the islands. This project will address the hypothesis that Borneo was an important source for many of the species that have evolved across the region. Understanding Borneo’s role in driving biodiversity in Southeast Asia is essential to providing clear strategies for conserving one of the planet’s most diverse and threatened islands. An exchange program will provide hands-on training for Indonesian and Malaysian colleagues in museum curation and species identification. Social media campaigns and field blogs will disseminate real-time updates which reach to over 1 million followers. This project will also provide training and mentorship for a diverse pool of graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher.A combination of museum-based genomic analysis with new field-collected samples will provide the foundation to test the hypothesis that Borneo has significantly contributed to the biodiversity in the region via its potential Areas of Endemism, or regions with rich communities of endemic species. Small mammals such as rodents will be used as the exemplar models, though the implications of this project span all floral and faunal groups. Field expeditions at six locations of Northern Borneo will augment the specimens that currently exist in museum collections, providing the sampling necessary to test the presence of seven hypothesized Area of Endemism on the island. All specimens will have hundreds of nuclear genes and complete mitochondrial genomes sequenced in order to generate intraspecific phylogenies with robust sampling across Borneo, enabling statistical analyses that will evaluate genomic patterns of diversity as additional evidence for the proposed Areas of Endemism. In addition to insights into conservation strategies by way of a deeper understanding of Borneo’s evolutionary and biogeographic histories, results from this research will include the likely discovery of new species, taxonomic revisions, and valuable vouchered specimens with high-quality tissues that will be preserved in museum collections.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.