Imprints and implications of historical contingencies in biodiversity patterns

历史突发事件对生物多样性格局的影响和影响

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06543
• 负责人: Pither, Jason
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=741305
• 关键词: Imprints; implications; historical; contingencies; biodiversity

Globally, species' geographic distributions are being reshaped by climate change, intensification of land use, and biological invasions, and this is impacting how biodiversity is distributed on earth. Humans are being impacted by these changes, because the ecosystem services upon which we rely are moderated by various facets of biodiversity, including, for example, the diversity of functional traits within ecosystems. Accurately quantifying all facets of biodiversity, and how these vary in space and through time, is therefore a priority. Substantial progress has been made in recent years due in part to increasing availability of species distribution and trait data, and globally coordinated efforts to fill key knowledge gaps. However, our understanding of the processes governing patterns of biodiversity remains far from complete. For example, local plant diversity can be influenced in part by symbioses between plants and fungi belowground, but we currently have little understanding of what governs compatibility between plant hosts and their fungal symbionts, or why some tree species can share many of the same fungal symbionts, and others none. Answers could lie in the past: hosts that have co-occurred together for a longer period of time may be more likely to share a greater number of compatible symbionts than those that have rarely co-occurred. Such historical contingencies often leave their mark on current diversity patterns. The long-term objective of my research program is to identify and understand the conditions that promote the relative importance of historical contingencies for local diversity patterns. My short-term research objectives are to (1) explore the links between historical contingencies and variation in plant species composition within the forest plant communities of British Columbia, (2) propose and test alternative hypotheses about the diversity of ectomycorrhizal fungi that are compatible with host plant species in BC forests, and (3) determine if accounting for historical and biogeographic contingencies can improve the predictive power paleoecological reconstructions of past environmental conditions.

在全球范围内，由于气候变化、土地利用加剧和生物入侵，物种的地理分布正在重塑，这正在影响地球上生物多样性的分布方式。人类正受到这些变化的影响，因为我们所依赖的生态系统服务受到生物多样性各个方面的调节，例如，包括生态系统内功能特征的多样性。因此，准确量化生物多样性的各个方面，以及这些方面在空间和时间上的变化是一个优先事项。近年来取得了实质性进展，部分原因是物种分布和性状数据的可用性增加，以及全球协调努力填补关键知识空白。然而，我们对控制生物多样性模式的过程的理解还远远不够。例如，当地的植物多样性在一定程度上可能受到地下植物和真菌之间的共生关系的影响，但我们目前对植物宿主与其真菌共生体之间的相容性知之甚少，或者为什么一些树种可以共享许多相同的真菌共生体，而另一些则没有。答案可能存在于过去：与那些很少共存的寄主相比，在较长时间内共存的寄主更有可能共享更多兼容的共生体。这样的历史偶然性往往会在当前的多样性模式上留下印记。我的研究计划的长期目标是确定和理解促进历史偶然性对当地多样性模式的相对重要性的条件。我的短期研究目标是：(1)探索不列颠哥伦比亚省森林植物群落中历史偶然事件与植物物种组成变化之间的联系；(2)提出并测试关于与BC森林中寄主植物物种相容的外生菌根真菌多样性的替代假设。(3)确定考虑历史和生物地理偶然性是否可以提高对过去环境条件的古生态重建的预测能力。