NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2010

这一行动为2010财年NSF少数民族博士后研究奖学金提供了资金。该奖学金支持在东道主实验室为该研究员制定的研究和培训计划，该研究员还提出了扩大生物学参与度的计划。劳伦·埃斯波西托的这一奖学金的研究和培训计划的标题是《加勒比海蝎子的生物地理学：生物多样性和地理之间的复杂关系》。这项研究的主办机构是加州大学伯克利分校，赞助科学家是罗斯玛丽·吉莱斯皮博士。长期以来，加勒比群岛因其作为通往美洲的门户而在人类历史上的重要作用而得到承认，但这些岛屿丰富的动植物群落往往被忽视。几个世纪的农业和发展给该地区的大部分地区带来了重大的保护问题。更好地了解这些岛屿的生物多样性以及促进其演变的过程，对于为子孙后代保护这些岛屿至关重要。该地区有着悠久的科学研究历史，但关于岛屿独特动植物的起源和多样性仍存在重大问题。该项目正在通过分析一种活化石--蝎子--来寻找这些问题的答案。作为捕食性节肢动物的一大类，蝎子是了解加勒比生物地理学(生物多样性在空间和时间上的分布)的理想生物。这项研究正在研究居住在加勒比海的几个独立的蝎子谱系，它们都具有不同的传播能力，以测试替代(地理分离)和扩散在加勒比海新物种形成中的作用。培训目标包括与一名对蜘蛛纲动物和生物地理研究做出主要贡献的研究人员合作。此外，该项目还加强了致力于服务不足社区教育的少数群体研究人员的职业发展。正在编写关于进化论和岛屿生物地理学的探究式课程，以便在湾区和加勒比地区的学校传播，并通过伯克利自然历史博物馆教育网站传播。

This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY 2010. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow who also presents a plan to broaden participation in biology. The title of the research and training plan for this fellowship to Lauren Esposito is "Biogeography of Caribbean Scorpions: The complex relationship between biodiversity and geography." The host institution for this research is University of California at Berkeley and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Rosemary Gillespie. The Caribbean Islands have long been recognized for their important role in human history as the gateway to the Americas, yet the rich plant and animal communities of the islands are too often overlooked. Centuries of agriculture and development have resulted in major conservation concerns for much of the region. A better understanding of the biodiversity of the islands and the processes that have contributed to its evolution are vital to preserve it for future generations. The region has a long history of scientific study, but major questions remain about the origin and diversification of the islands' unique plants and animals. This project is searching for answers to those questions by analyzing a living fossil: scorpions. As a major group of predatory arthropods, scorpions are ideal organisms for understanding Caribbean biogeography (the distribution of biodiversity over space and time). This study is examining several independent lineages of scorpions inhabiting the Caribbean, all with varying dispersal abilities, in order to test the role of vicariance (geographic separation) vs. dispersal in the formation of new species in the Caribbean.Training objectives include working and collaborating with a researcher who is a major contributor to arachnid and biogeographical research. Additionally, this project enhances the career development of a minority researcher dedicated to education of underserved communities. Inquiry-based lessons on evolution and island biogeography are being developed for dissemination in Bay Area and Caribbean schools, and via the Berkeley Museum of Natural History education website.