Elevation and Diversity

海拔和多样性

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04838
• 负责人: Smith, MAlexander
• 金额: $ 2.4万
• 依托单位: University of Guelph
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=757639
• 关键词: Elevation; Diversity

Biological diversity is affected by elevation through associated changes in temperature and precipitation. How those changes will affect the most diverse taxonomic group (terrestrial arthropods), in the most diverse regions (the tropics) remains unknown. The long-term vision of my research program is to understand the causes and consequences of diversity and elevation by lifting the concealing veil of cryptic tropical insect species biology. What species live where? What is the thermal tolerance of these species? How do species deal with the heat and dryness of low elevation dry forest and the cold and wet of high elevation cloud forest? How are these distributions and adaptations changing through time? Fulfilling this vision will result in better delineation of elevational ranges for tropical insect species, a more thorough understanding of ectotherm evolution and ecology, a toolkit of predictions regarding which species will be most affected by hot temperatures on their relentless march upslope, and a description of many tropical species that frees them into the scientific literature. The 4 PhD and 2 MSc students who will be trained in this program will help to accelerate my research vision. They will be trained in making research and community contributions in a lab and with a mentor that is uniquely prepared for this undertaking: with >10 years of sampling in Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG; Costa Rica), >100 publications, and who has helped describe >1000 species. My research program has elucidated how numerous hyperdiverse tropical arthropod groups are affected by elevation. This DG proposal describes HQP training that contributes to, and transitions more than 13 years of intensive sampling and formal description of leaf-litter arthropods and abiotic variables across 1,500 m elevational transects in ACG. We will use field and laboratory methods to estimate thermal tolerance and dispersal ability for these wild taxa while using genetics (DNA barcode and metabarcoding) to estimate cryptic diversity and speciation and then capitalise on all information sources to formally describe the species we discover. Finally, we will extend the standardised sampling protocol to a North American elevational gradient to enable a unique tropical/temperate comparison. Understanding and predicting such changes matters for several reasons. Climate change is pushing warmer temperatures upslope and will reduce the amount, and predictability, of precipitation that tropical or temperate high-elevation environments receive. Many, perhaps most, of the species of leaf-litter arthropods in these high-elevation communities are without scientific names. As such, changes in their ranges are, at best coarse, or at worst; invisible. Finally, we know next to nothing about the functional biology (e.g. thermal tolerance or dispersal capacity) of most species of arthropod, tropical or temperate. With the program described here my HQP and I will begin to change this.

生物多样性通过温度和降水的相关变化受到海拔的影响。这些变化将如何影响最多样化地区（热带地区）最多样化的分类群（陆地节肢动物）仍然未知。我的研究计划的长期愿景是通过揭开神秘的热带昆虫物种生物学的面纱来了解多样性和海拔的原因和后果。什么物种生活在哪里？这些物种的耐热性如何？物种如何应对低海拔干燥林的炎热和干燥，以及高海拔云雾林的寒冷和潮湿？这些分布和适应性是如何随着时间的推移而变化的？实现这一愿景将导致更好地描绘热带昆虫物种的海拔范围，更深入地了解外温动物的进化和生态学，预测哪些物种在无情的上坡行军中受高温影响最大的工具包，以及对许多热带物种的描述，使它们成为科学文献。4博士和2硕士学生谁将在这个程序中进行培训将有助于加快我的研究视野。他们将在实验室中接受研究和社区贡献的培训，并有一位为这项事业做好独特准备的导师：在瓜纳卡斯特保护区（ACG;哥斯达黎加）进行了超过10年的采样，超过100篇出版物，以及帮助描述了超过1000种物种。 我的研究项目已经阐明了许多高度多样化的热带节肢动物群体是如何受到海拔的影响的。该DG提案描述了HQP培训，有助于和过渡超过13年的密集采样和正式描述的叶凋落物节肢动物和非生物变量跨越1,500米海拔断面ACG。我们将使用现场和实验室的方法来估计这些野生类群的耐热性和扩散能力，同时使用遗传学（DNA条形码和元条形码）来估计神秘的多样性和物种形成，然后利用所有信息来源来正式描述我们发现的物种。最后，我们将扩展标准化的采样协议，北美海拔梯度，使一个独特的热带/温带比较。 理解和预测这些变化很重要，原因有几个。气候变化正在推动气温上升，并将减少热带或温带高海拔地区的降水量和可预测性。在这些高海拔地区的群落中，许多，也许是大多数，落叶节肢动物物种没有学名。因此，其范围的变化，最好是粗糙的，或在最坏的情况下;无形的。最后，我们对大多数热带或温带节肢动物的功能生物学（例如耐热性或扩散能力）几乎一无所知。有了这里描述的程序，我和我的HQP将开始改变这种情况。