Comparative strategies of ion trafficking and antioxidant physiology in stream insects: A phylogenetic approach

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。水生昆虫发挥着关键的生态作用，由于它们在生物监测项目中的广泛使用，具有实际重要性。然而，它们作为生态指标的使用是有限的，部分原因是对决定它们对环境挑战的反应的基本生理过程知之甚少。由于有这么多的水生昆虫物种，这是不可能的进行所需的生理实验来表征物种特异性的反应，共同的环境问题。该项目将探讨物种的进化相关性是否可以作为它们对痕量金属污染的生理表现的预测。正在研究的生理系统包括离子调节（钙，锌和镉的流量）和抗氧化生理学。生态生理学与进化生物学中的现代系统发育比较方法的这种新婚姻有能力从根本上改变水生昆虫及其对环境变化的反应的研究。传统上，水生昆虫的研究集中在行会学校的方法，在很大程度上忽略了生理学。这项研究将根据生理学和生殖学来预测物种的表现。该计划将扩大代表性不足的群体的参与，因为它包括对南方历史上最古老的黑人大学Shaw University的夏季本科实习生的支持，以及为阿巴拉契亚山脉农村和美洲原住民社区的高中生物教师举办的研讨会。这个工作坊将协助教师发展探究式的课程，探讨溪流环境中的生态与演化主题。最后，该计划的结果将广泛有益于社会，因为水生昆虫通常用于评估世界各地地表沃茨的生态条件。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Aquatic insects play critical ecological roles and are of practical importance due to their widespread use in biomonitoring programs. Nevertheless, their use as ecological indicators is limited in part, because the fundamental physiological processes that determine their responses to environmental challenges are poorly understood. Because there are so many aquatic insect species, it is impossible to perform the types of physiological experimentation required to characterize species-specific responses to common environmental problems. This project will explore whether the evolutionary relatedness of species can be used as a predictor of their physiological performance in response to trace metal pollution. The physiological systems under study include ion regulation (fluxes of calcium, zinc and cadmium) and antioxidant physiology. This novel marriage of ecophysiology with modern phylogenetic comparative methods in evolutionary biology has the capacity to fundamentally change the study of aquatic insects and their responses to changing environments. Traditionally, the study of aquatic insects has focused on guild school approaches and has largely ignored physiology. This research will make predictions of species performance based upon both physiology and phylogeny. This program will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups as it includes support for summer undergraduate interns from Shaw University, the oldest Historically Black College in the South, and a workshop for high school biology teachers from rural and Native American communities in the Appalachians. This workshop will assist teachers in the development of inquiry-based programs that explore themes of ecology and evolution in stream environments. Finally, the results of this program will be broadly beneficial to society, as aquatic insects are commonly used to evaluate the ecological conditions of surface waters worldwide.