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很多重要的原因，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。在世界的热带地区尤其如此，那里未被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。本研究旨在通过研究哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性，为记录地球上的植物多样性做出贡献，哥伦比亚是地球上物种最丰富的国家之一。在这项工作中，研究人员将通过在该国科学家尚未探索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。这个项目将提高我们对哥伦比亚存在多少蕨类物种，它们在哪里生长，以及其中有多少濒临灭绝的了解。该项目还将对科学上的新物种进行描述，并通过分析DNA序列重建蕨类植物的进化史，为植物多样性的起源提供见解。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、免费的在线视频和在美国植物园的展示与公众分享。本研究将采用多方面的方法，通过统一的分类和进化背景，记录哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性。首先，将通过对哥伦比亚未充分研究的地区进行实地考察来解决目前对哥伦比亚物种分布的了解差距，这些地区预计将拥有高水平的蕨类植物多样性，并辅以对主要植物标本馆标本的针对性研究。其次，为了改善哥伦比亚蕨类植物数据的可获取性，现有在线数据库的资源将得到加强，为美洲热带蕨类植物多样性研究提供一个数据丰富、可公开获取、标本驱动的分类资源。该资源将包括一个可搜索的标本数据库、科和属的多条目密钥，以及标本驱动的国家和地区清单。第三，为了更好地了解进化背景下哥伦比亚蕨类物种的多样性，将为哥伦比亚所有蕨类物种生成基因组资源，包括所有收集的DNA和叶片组织库、倍性估计和目标捕获序列数据，以进行全面的系统基因组分析。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，包括对四个突出和复杂的属的完整分类处理。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.