CRB - The Impacts of Tropical Forest Fragmentation on Population Structure, Seed and Pollen Gene Flow and Future Genetic Diversity in the Tropical Tree Corythophora alta.

9983014汉密尔顿热带森林砍伐造成所有树木被清除的地区和小块的残余树木。这些森林碎片成为避难所，是森林被砍伐地区未来人口的唯一来源。这项研究的目的是确定森林破碎化是否会导致热带树木种群中基因运动（基因流）的变化，从而可能导致遗传多样性的丧失和灭绝风险的增加。本研究将利用巴西玛瑙斯附近森林碎片生物动力学项目的实验森林碎片和巴西坚果科的冠层树Corythophora alta作为模式物种。利用核和叶绿体DNA遗传标记来估计花粉和种子的运动，比较了未受干扰森林和破碎森林中树木种群的遗传组织和基因流动模式。这项研究将估计目前热带森林的破坏对未来居住在地理限制地区的森林种群的遗传基础的影响。研究结果将有助于了解退化自然生境的未来遗传状况，为生物保护区设计和农林工程提供遗传信息，并有助于更好地了解热带树木的进化遗传学。这项工作的最终目标是估计破碎化的潜在遗传影响，以防止物种丰富的亚马逊森林的遗传侵蚀。

9983014 HamiltonTropical deforestation creates areas cleared of all trees and small, remnant patches of trees. Such forest fragments become refuges and the only source of future populations in a deforested landscape. The goal of this research is to determine if forest fragmentation causes changes in the movement of genes (gene flow) in tropical tree populations that may lead to loss of genetic diversity and increased extinction risk. This study will utilize experimental forest fragments at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project near Manaus, Brazil and a canopy tree in the Brazil nut family, Corythophora alta, as a model species. Using nuclear and chloroplast DNA genetic markers to estimate pollen and seed movement, this study seeks to compare genetic organization and gene flow patterns of tree populations in undisturbed forest and fragmented forest.This research will estimate the impact of present-day tropical forest destruction on the genetic base of future forest populations that will inhabit geographically restricted areas. The results will give insights into the future genetic condition of degraded natural habitats, genetic information for biological reserve design and agroforestry projects, and a better understanding of the evolutionary genetics of tropical trees. The ultimate goal of this work is to estimate potential genetic impacts of fragmentation in order to prevent genetic erosion in species-rich Amazonian forests.