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和最古老的岛屿。它位于物种多样性高的地区中间，受到人类日益增加的威胁。婆罗洲的生物多样性鲜为人知，但对附近爪哇岛和苏门答腊岛的调查显示，这些岛屿是独特栖息地和物种的复杂拼凑。这种多样性是海平面周期性下降所驱动的复杂的进化和地质历史的结果，海平面周期性下降创造了陆地桥梁，使岛屿之间的分散成为可能。该项目将解决婆罗洲是整个地区进化的许多物种的重要来源的假设。了解婆罗洲在推动东南亚生物多样性方面的作用，对于保护地球上最多样化和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度尼西亚和马来西亚的同事提供博物馆策展和物种鉴定方面的实践培训。社交媒体运动和外地博客将传播实时更新，其追随者超过100万。该项目还将为不同的研究生和博士后研究人员提供培训和指导。基于博物馆的基因组分析与新的实地收集的样本相结合，将为检验以下假设提供基础：婆罗洲通过其潜在的特有区或具有丰富特有物种社区的地区，对该地区的生物多样性做出了重大贡献。啮齿动物等小型哺乳动物将被用作典范模型，尽管该项目的影响涵盖所有花卉和动物群。在婆罗洲北方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，提供必要的采样来测试岛上七个假设的特有区的存在。所有标本都将有数百个核基因和完整的线粒体基因组测序，以便在婆罗洲各地进行稳健的采样，从而产生种内遗传，从而进行统计分析，评估基因组多样性模式，作为拟议的特有现象区域的额外证据。除了通过更深入地了解婆罗洲的进化和地理历史来了解保护策略外，这项研究的结果还将包括可能发现新物种，分类学修订，和珍贵的有担保的标本该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.