International Research Fellowship Program: Phylogenetic Structure of Sedge Communities in a Quebec Old-Growth Forest

0601916弗林国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。Flinn与加拿大麦吉尔大学的Martin J. Lechowicz博士合作。由于人类活动威胁到全球物种的持久性，保护生物多样性的努力迫切需要更好地了解其背后的模式和过程。物种丰富的社区如何起源和维持自己？那么多密切相关、生态相似的物种如何在其中共存呢？共享生态特征的相关生物可能竞争更强烈，共同出现的频率更低（即，系统发育过度分散），或者它们可以分类到相似的栖息地（系统发育聚类）。竞争也可能有利于在栖息地亲和力和分布格局的近亲之间的分歧。了解群落的系统发育结构和生态特征的进化可以为群落组织提供独特的见解。本项目研究森林林下植物群落的系统发育和生态结构，以解决这些群落如何组装和功能的问题。它评估了物种的亲缘关系和它们的生态相似性之间的关系，包括功能性状和分布格局沿着环境梯度，莎草属苔草在古老的森林在蒙特圣伊莱尔，魁北克。55苔草物种生活在山上的各种植物群落，提供了一个10平方公里的完整的栖息地面积，和详细的，强大的系统发育，为这个不同的属可能强大的测试的假设生态性状的演变如何影响社区组织。该项目的两个主要目标是评估圣希莱尔山苔草群落沿着环境梯度的系统发育结构，并描述该属内姊妹种对的栖息地亲和力。收集有关植物群落组成、系统发育关系、环境条件和植物功能性状的信息将允许检验两组假设。1.苔草群落表现出更大的系统发育过度分散在邻里尺度比在景观尺度;姐妹种之间比较大的分支之间;在潮湿的，低地森林比在高地森林;和2。姊妹种的生态相似性比远亲种要低，特别是在湿地分支内。该项目通过整合系统发育、生态和环境信息，对生态学中的一个基本问题采取新的方法，将有助于更好地理解群落结构的进化基础。

0601916FlinnThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Kathryn M. Flinn to work with Dr. Martin J. Lechowicz at McGill University of Canada.As human activities threaten the persistence of species worldwide, efforts to preserve biological diversity urgently need a better understanding of the patterns and processes underlying it. How do species-rich communities originate and maintain themselves? How can so many closely related, ecologically similar species coexist within them? Related organisms that share ecological traits may compete more strongly and co-occur less often (i.e., phylogenetic overdispersion), or they may sort into similar habitats (phylogenetic clustering). Competition may also favor divergence among close relatives in habitat affinities and distribution patterns. Understanding both the phylogenetic structure of communities and the evolution of ecological traits can thus provide unique insights into community organization.This project investigates the phylogenetic and ecological structure of forest understory plant communities in order to address questions about how these communities assemble and function. It assesses the relationships between species' relatedness and their ecological similarity, including both functional traits and distribution patterns along environmental gradients, for the sedge genus Carex in the old-growth forest at Mont St. Hilaire, Quebec. Fifty-five Carex species live within the various plant communities on the mountain, which provides a 10 km2 area of intact habitat, and a detailed, robust phylogeny for this diverse genus makes possible powerful tests of hypotheses about how the evolution of ecological traits affects community organization. The project's two main goals are to assess the phylogenetic structure of Carex assemblages along environmental gradients at Mont St. Hilaire, and to characterize the habitat affinities of sister-species pairs within the genus. Gathering information on plant community composition, phylogenetic relationships, environmental conditions and plant functional traits will allow for testing two sets of hypotheses. 1. Carex communities show greater phylogenetic overdispersion at the neighborhood scale than at the landscape scale; between sister species than among larger clades; and in wet, lowland forests than in upland forests; and 2. Sister species show less ecological similarity than more distantly related species, particularly within the wetland clade. Taking a novel approach to an fundamental problem in ecology by integrating phylogenetic, ecological and environmental information, this project will contribute to a better understanding of the evolutionary basis of community structure.