OPUS: The Structure and Dynamics of Selection on Evolving Interactions

这个项目将综合几十年来关于环境变化如何影响物种的遗传结构和物种之间的相互作用的研究。这项合成将借鉴关于寄生虫和宿主、捕食者和猎物、竞争物种和互惠物种之间相互作用的广泛研究。其目标是了解生态和进化过程如何在环境变化中改变相互作用的物种的网络。这份综合报告将以一本书的形式出版，总结这些发现。这个项目是及时的，因为越来越多的科学和社会需要了解环境变化，包括栖息地碎片化、入侵物种的传播和物种的灭绝，可能正在改变物种的进化及其相互作用。为此，综合将包括对环境变化速度加快可能如何影响物种特征和物种间相互作用的自然选择过程的分析。因此，通过评估目前的假设和预测，这一综合应该有助于为未来关于物理环境和生物群落的变化如何促进种群和物种的遗传变化的研究确定一些最有成效的方向。除了发表科学发现外，首席研究员还参与了多个指导角色和外联计划，这些计划将提供向更广泛的受众传播发现的方法。

This project will synthesize several decades of research on how environmental change affects the genetic structure of species and interactions among species. The synthesis will draw from a wide range of studies on interactions between parasites and hosts, predators and prey, competing species, and mutualistic species. The goal is to understand how ecological and evolutionary processes alter webs of interacting species amid environmental change. The synthesis will be published as a book that will summarize the findings. The project is timely, because there is a growing scientific and societal need to understand how environmental change, including habitat fragmentation, spread of invasive species, and extinction of species, may be altering the evolution of species and their interactions with each other. Toward that end, the synthesis will include an analysis of how the accelerating pace of environmental change may be affecting the process of natural selection on the traits of species and on interactions among species. By evaluating current hypotheses and predictions, this synthesis therefore should help identify some of the most fruitful directions for future research on how changes in physical environments and biological communities foster genetic change in populations and species. In addition to publication of the scientific findings, the principal investigator is involved in multiple mentoring roles and outreach programs that will provide ways of disseminating the findings to a broader audience.