NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Assessment of interactions between nectarivorous birds and flowering plants to investigate pollination loss in Hawaiian forests

这一行动资助了NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。这位研究员将调查夏威夷森林中的授粉损失，那里经历了物种灭绝和非本土物种入侵的高比率。例如，夏威夷群岛上大多数原生的以花蜜为食的鸟类已经灭绝，依靠这些鸟类授粉的植物可能因失去鸟类伴侣而面临灭绝的危险。这位研究员将通过对鸟类账单和花管形状的胶片和3D扫描，仔细研究鸟类与植物的相互作用，以预测鸟类传粉者的丧失对夏威夷植物的影响。为了扩大参与，该研究员将进行调查和分析，以了解并开始解决LGTBQIA+生物学家在STEM职业生涯中面临的障碍，并让夏威夷原住民参与研究。授粉通常依赖于与食蜜性动物(下称食蜜性动物)的互利互动，食蜜性动物在植物之间传递花粉，同时获取甜味奖励。食蜜者和植物可能会共同进化，表现出匹配的功能特征，如鸟喙和花管形状，增加了它们相互作用的特异性和益处。然而，当特征不匹配时，物种可能无法相互作用，或者相互作用可能对植物产生负面影响。由于鸟类物种的丧失，与食蜜性夏威夷鸟类共同进化的夏威夷类(风铃科)可能是授粉受限的。然而，植物-传粉者之间的历史相互作用在很大程度上是未知的，也不确定现存的蜜食动物(本地和引进的)是否可能通过维持授粉过程来弥补鸟类的灭绝。因此，需要一个机制模型来确定植物-食蜜性物种配对的相互作用结果。这位研究员将模拟鸟类和花卉的三维(3D)数字模型的相互作用，以研究在3D中得出的特征匹配指标如何与野外拍摄的相互作用中的花粉转移有关。然后，这位研究员将预测潜在的灭绝和现存的相互作用的结果，以估计互惠互利的损失，并通过种子活力测试来验证模型。此外，该研究员将进行社会科学研究，以消除LGBTQIA+科学家在生物专业中的障碍。这项研究将涉及一项针对LGTBQIA+生物学家的调查，涉及学术界、政府和行业的专业水平，以及旨在增加LGTBQIA+代表性的工作组，明确地在博士后水平上。这位研究员还将为寻求生物学职业的夏威夷原住民启动一项研究培训计划。这一奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The Fellow will investigate pollination loss in Hawaiian forests, which have experienced high rates of species extinction and invasion by non-native species. For instance, most native nectar-feeding birds in the Hawaiian Islands have gone extinct, and plants that depend on these birds for pollination may be at risk for extinction from the loss of their bird partners. The Fellow will closely examine bird-plant interactions, using film and 3D scans of bird bills and flower tube shapes, to predict the impacts of bird pollinator loss on Hawaiian plants. To broaden participation, the fellow will conduct surveys and analysis to understand and start to resolve barriers that LGTBQIA+ biologists face in STEM careers and involve native Hawaiians in the research. Pollination often depends on mutualistic interactions with nectar-feeding animals (hereafter nectarivores), in which nectarivores transfer pollen between plants while collecting the sugary reward. Nectarivores and plants may coevolve to exhibit matched functional traits, such as coupled bird bill and floral tube shapes, increasing the specificity and benefits of their interactions. When traits are mismatched, however, species may fail to interact, or interactions may negatively impact plants. Hawaiian lobelioids (Campanulaceae), which have coevolved with nectarivorous Hawaiian birds, may be pollination-limited due to bird species loss. Nevertheless, historic plant-pollinator interactions are largely unknown, and it is uncertain whether extant nectarivores (native and introduced) may potentially compensate for bird extinctions by maintaining pollination processes. Thus, a mechanistic model is needed for identifying interaction outcomes for plant-nectarivore species pairings. The Fellow will simulate interactions from three-dimensional (3D) digital models of birds and flowers, in order to investigate how trait-matching metrics derived in 3D can be linked to pollen transfer in wild-filmed interactions. The Fellow will then predict outcomes for potential extinct and extant interactions to estimate mutualism loss and validate models with tests of seed viability. Further, the Fellow will conduct social science research to disentangle barriers to LGBTQIA+ scientists in biology professions. The research will involve a survey for LGTBQIA+ biologists across professional levels in academia, government, and industry, and work groups designed to increase LGTBQIA+ representation, explicitly at the postdoctoral level. The Fellow will also launch a research training program for native Hawaiians pursuing careers in 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.