Collaborative Research: Testing Evolutionary Pseudocongruence Along the Baja California Peninsula Through Integration of Geologic and Genomic Data

地球和生物科学研究的一个主要目标是了解不同的过程，如构造活动、降雨梯度和冰川驱动的气候周期如何随着时间的推移塑造进化和生物多样性。墨西哥下加利福尼亚半岛中部存在着一种先前记录的北方和南方种群之间的遗传分化模式，在数十个物种中观察到了这种模式，但对这种分化模式的潜在控制目前尚不清楚。该项目旨在通过对地质、生态和基因组数据集的综合研究，测试可能控制1000公里长半岛沿线生物多样性的三个过程。这项工作的一个社会效益将是利用“大数据”并量化地整合用于科学发现的新型数据集。除其他好处外，个人投资机构将指导和培训博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生的最佳跨学科研究实践，这是保持美国在创新方面的全球竞争力所必需的。这项工作将包括与墨西哥科学家的合作，并将与目前由NSF资助的另外两项位于下加利福尼亚州中部的研究进行协调。该小组将制作一系列简短的培训视频，演示常用的野外工作技术，并制作一套动画，总结下加利福尼亚州的地质和生物历史，目的是向非专业人员交流跨学科的地球生物学概念。PIS将主办一个社区研讨会，以推进地球-生命研究，并实施亚利桑那州立大学和亚利桑那大学之间的艺术-科学合作课程。这项研究将测试三种假说，以解释先前记录的跨下加利福尼亚半岛中部南北遗传分化的模式：(1)上新世期间，种群在半岛中部被物理屏障(海洋海道)隔离；(2)更新世冰川使种群在避难所隔离；以及(3)季风驱动的降雨时间差异通过异步繁殖和/或对降水制度的差异适应孤立物种。该团队将绘制发生分歧的半岛中部地区的构造、地层和火山特征并确定日期；使用现代地质年代学方法限制沉积、火山活动、变形和隆起的时间；评估被子植物、爬行动物和哺乳动物的低覆盖率基因组，以评估种群基因组特征、局部适应的位置和等位基因变化的空间模式；评估季节性基因表达；为现代和冰川气候开发生态位模型；以及测试当今的生态位差异。这项研究将包含地质和气候的复杂性，以了解控制基因组进化和多样化的外部因素，并探索生物进化如何通过时间的多个共生过程(伪一致)来驱动。我们的方法在进化框架内使用尖端的地质学、生物学和统计学方法，将生物基因组进化与物理环境中共同发生的变化结合起来。这些发现将促进我们在中观组织规模(即介于微生物和全球之间)对地球生物学的理解，并将产生新的战略，以测试驱动进化的各种因素。这项研究的结果将为开发新的地球生命演化预测模型提供基础步骤，这些模型可以应用于更深层次的时间尺度和其他地球生物系统。该项目由地球科学部的地球科学前沿研究计划和环境生物学部的进化过程群共同资助。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。

A primary goal of research in earth and biological sciences is to understand how diverse processes such as tectonic activity, rainfall gradients, and glacially driven climate cycles shape evolution and biodiversity over time. The central Baja California peninsula, Mexico, hosts a previously documented pattern of genetic divergence between northern and southern populations that is observed in dozens of species, but the underlying controls on this divergence pattern are presently unknown. This project aims to test three processes that may control biodiversity along the 1000-km long peninsula, through an integrative study of geological, ecological and genomic datasets. One societal benefit of this work will be to leverage 'big data' and quantitatively integrate new types datasets for scientific discovery. Among other benefits, the PIs will mentor and train postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students in best practices of transdisciplinary research that are necessary to keep the U.S. globally competitive in innovation. This work will include collaboration with Mexican scientists and will be coordinated with two other studies in central Baja California that are currently funded by NSF. The team will create a series of short training videos to demonstrate common fieldwork techniques, and a set of animations to summarize the geological and biological history of Baja California with the goal of communicating interdisciplinary geo-biological concepts to non-specialists. The PIs will host a community workshop to advance Earth-Life research, and implement an art-science collaborative course between Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.This study will test three hypotheses to explain a previously documented pattern of north-south genetic divergence across the central Baja California peninsula: (1) populations were isolated by a physical barrier (marine seaway) in the mid-Peninsular region during Pliocene time; (2) Pleistocene glaciations isolated populations in refugia; and (3) monsoon-driven differences in rainfall timing isolated species through asynchronous reproduction and/or differential adaptation to precipitation regimes. The team will map and date structural, stratigraphic, and volcanic features in the mid-Peninsular region where the divergence occurs; use modern geochronologic methods to constrain the timing of deposition, volcanism, deformation and uplift; evaluate low-coverage genomes of angiosperms, reptiles, and mammals to assess population genomic signatures, loci under local adaptation, and spatial patterns of allelic variation; assess seasonal gene expression; develop niche models for modern and glacial climates; and test for present-day niche divergence. This study will embrace geological and climatic complexity to understand extrinsic factors that control genome evolution and diversification and explore how biological evolution can be driven by multiple co-occurring processes through time (pseudocongruence). Our approach uses cutting-edge geological, biological and statistical methods within an evolutionary framework to integrate organismal genomic evolution with co-occurring changes in the physical environment. These findings will advance our understanding of geobiology at meso-organizational scales (i.e., intermediate between microbial and global), and will generate new strategies to test for diverse factors that drive evolution. Results of this research will provide foundational steps toward developing new predictive models of Earth-Life evolution that can be applied to deeper timescales and other geobiological systems. This project is jointly funded by the Frontier Research in Earth Sciences Program in the Division of Earth Sciences and the Evolutionary Processes Cluster in 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.