PurSUiT: Collaborative Research: Accelerating Lineage Discovery to Document Neotropical Fern Diversity

了解地球上物种的多样性和分布有许多重要原因，但记录和描述生物多样性的过程往往跟不上栖息地丧失和物种灭绝的速度。在世界热带地区尤其如此，那里未描述和鲜为人知的物种数量最多，生物多样性受到最严重的威胁。这项研究的目的是通过研究哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性，为地球上植物多样性的记录做出贡献。在这项工作中，研究人员将通过在科学家探索不足的偏远地区进行调查，以及研究博物馆收藏的蕨类植物标本，来记录蕨类植物的多样性。该项目将提高我们对哥伦比亚有多少蕨类植物物种、它们的分布地点以及其中有多少面临灭绝威胁的了解。该项目还将通过DNA序列分析重建蕨类植物的进化历史，从而描述科学上的新物种，并深入了解植物多样性的起源。这项工作的一个重要贡献将是创建一个免费访问的在线数据库，该数据库将组织哥伦比亚蕨类植物的数据，并帮助未来的研究人员研究这些植物。该项目还将为两名研究生和十几名本科生提供生物多样性研究方面的培训，并将改善科学合作。这项研究的结果将通过与学校的合作伙伴关系，免费提供的在线视频以及在美国植物园的展示与公众分享。这项研究将通过统一的分类学和进化背景下使用多方面的方法记录哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性。首先，在哥伦比亚物种分布的理解，目前的差距将通过实地考察，以解决哥伦比亚的研究不足的地区，预计港口高水平的蕨类植物的多样性，辅之以有针对性的研究，在主要的植物标本馆标本。第二，为了提高哥伦比亚蕨类植物数据的可访问性，现有在线数据库的资源将得到支持，为美洲热带地区的蕨类植物多样性研究提供数据丰富，公开可用，由哥伦比亚人驱动的分类资源。这一资源将包括一个可搜索的标本数据库，多条目的关键科和属，和欧洲议会驱动的国家和地区清单。第三，为了更好地了解哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性在进化的背景下，基因组资源将产生所有蕨类植物物种在哥伦比亚，包括DNA和叶组织库的所有集合，倍性估计，和目标捕获序列数据进行全面的基因组分析。最后，这些数据将被整合，以检测和描述尚未被忽视的多样性，包括四个突出的和复杂的genes.This奖项完整的分类治疗反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Understanding the diversity and distribution of species on Earth is important for many reasons, but the process of documenting and describing biodiversity often cannot keep up with the rate of habitat loss and the extinction of species. This is especially true in tropical regions of the world, where the number of undescribed and poorly known species is highest and biodiversity is most severely threatened. This research aims to contribute to documentation of Earth’s plant diversity by studying the diversity of ferns in Colombia, one of the most species-rich countries on Earth. In this work, the researchers will document fern diversity by conducting surveys in remote parts of the country that have been poorly explored by scientists, as well as studying specimens of ferns in museum collections. This project will improve our understanding of how many fern species exist in Colombia, where they occur, and how many of them are threatened with extinction. This project will also result in the description of species that are new to science and provide insights into the origins of plant diversity by reconstructing the evolutionary history of ferns through analysis of DNA sequences. An important contribution of this work will be the creation of a freely accessible online database that will organize data on ferns in Colombia and help future researchers to study these plants. This project will also provide training for two graduate students and more than a dozen undergraduate students in biodiversity research and will improve scientific collaboration. Findings of this research will be shared with the public through partnerships with schools, freely available online videos, and displays at a botanical garden in the United States. This research will document diversity of ferns in Colombia through a unified taxonomic and evolutionary context using a multi-faceted approach. First, gaps in the current understanding of species distributions in Colombia will be addressed through field expeditions to understudied regions of Colombia that are predicted to harbor high levels of fern diversity, complemented by targeted study of herbarium specimens at major herbaria. Second, in order to improve accessibility of data on Colombia ferns, resources for an existing online database will be bolstered, producing a data-rich, publicly available, specimen-driven taxonomic resource for fern diversity research in the American tropics. This resource will include a searchable specimen database, multi-entry keys to families and genera, and specimen-driven national and regional checklists. Third, to better understand Colombian fern diversity within an evolutionary context, genomic resources will be generated for all fern species in Colombia, including a DNA and leaf-tissue bank for all collections, ploidy estimates, and target capture sequence data to conduct comprehensive phylogenomic analyses. Finally, these data will be integrated to detect and describe yet-overlooked diversity, including complete taxonomic treatments for four prominent and complex genera.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.