Collaborative Research: Predicting novel interactions between parasitic botflies and high-elevation deer mice under climate change

地球仪周围的环境正在迅速变化，使物种面临新的环境挑战。为了了解气候变化对生物体的影响，科学家必须研究个体如何应对新的环境挑战，以及这些反应如何改变物种的分布和进化。高海拔山地生态系统（海拔约2,500米）特别容易受到气候变化的影响，许多高海拔物种的分布发生了变化，或者完全灭绝。该项目将测试一种大型寄生虫Cuterebra Botflies是否会随着气候变暖而扩展到更高的海拔地区，以及这种扩展是否会对其宿主之一的高海拔种群产生负面影响，北美鹿鼠（Peromyscus maniculatus）目前没有遇到Botflies。该项目的数据将用于为中学生开发新的课程，重点是分析和解释真实的数据，以及一系列旨在增加对气候变化对生物多样性影响的理解的YouTube视频。高海拔物种的脆弱性可能是由于它们的范围普遍狭窄，以及这些环境固有的强大的非生物选择压力，从而减少了种群的遗传和表型变异。在海拔接近海平面的地方，马蝇幼虫的感染对鹿鼠的生理有明显的影响，但对性能或生存没有影响。然而，在中等海拔地区（海拔约2,000米），马蝇感染严重限制了小鼠的生理功能、越冬存活和执行生态相关任务的能力。这个项目将结合联合收割机现场生理学沿着一个陡峭的海拔梯度（~海平面4,000米asl）人口建模，实验操作，和基因组重新测序，以确定正在进行的和新的相互作用之间的影响，马蝇和他们的鹿鼠宿主在其广泛的海拔范围。这些数据将用于预测在气候变化下马蝇感染对鹿鼠种群的未来人口统计后果。该项目将提供一个前所未有的探索宿主-寄生虫动力学在面对新的相互作用，作为气候变化的结果。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Environments around the globe are rapidly changing, exposing species to new environmental challenges. To understand the effects that shifting climates have on organisms, scientists must investigate how individuals respond to new environmental challenges, and how those responses alter species’ distributions and their evolution. High-elevation, montane ecosystems (~2,500 meters above sea level) are especially vulnerable to climate change, and numerous high-elevation species have experienced changes in their distributions or have gone extinct altogether. This project will test whether a flesh macroparasite, Cuterebra botflies, will expand into higher elevations with a warming climate, and whether this expansion will negatively impact high-elevation populations of one of its hosts, the North American deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) that currently do not encounter botflies. Data from this project will be used to develop new curricula for middle school students focused on analyzing and interpreting real data, as well as a series of YouTube videos aimed to increase understanding of the effects of climate change on biodiversity.The vulnerability of high-elevation species may result from their generally narrow ranges and the unrelentingly strong abiotic selection pressures inherent to these environments, which reduces a population’s genetic and phenotypic variation. At elevations near sea-level, infections with botfly larvae have pronounced influences on deer mouse physiology, but not on performance or survival. At moderate elevations however (~2,000 meters above sea level), however, botfly infections severely limit physiological function, over-winter survival and the ability of mice to perform ecologically relevant tasks. This project will combine field physiology along a steep elevational gradient (~sea level to 4,000 m asl) with demographic modeling, experimental manipulations, and genome re-sequencing to determine the consequences of ongoing and novel interactions between botflies and their deer mouse hosts across their broad elevational range. The data will be used predict future demographic consequences of botfly infection on deer mouse populations under climate change. The project will provide an unprecedented exploration of host-parasite dynamics in the face of novel interactions as a result of climate change.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.