Collaborative Research - LTREB: Evolutionary Demography - the Contribution of Adaptation and Environment to Population Dynamics, Range Size, and Niche Width

该项目持续了7年的环境和人口变化研究，跨越加州本土植物的地理范围，以了解生物分布的生态和进化限制。先前的研究表明，与气候、土壤以及与昆虫传粉者和食籽者的相互作用有关的环境变量在植物的分布范围内都会发生变化。作为衡量人口生存能力的指标，人口增长率也向范围边缘下降。在接下来的五年里，研究人员将研究休眠种子在土壤中埋藏2-5年的作用，这些种子在让种群经受恶劣环境并长期生存方面发挥的作用。该项目还将确定休眠种子寿命的大范围差异。随着气候变化的迫近，许多生物目前的部分地理范围可能不再适合继续生存。了解是什么限制了物种在不利环境中定居，可以帮助预测物种对当前生存范围内日益恶化的环境的反应。除了其科学影响外，该项目还将通过吸引高中生，研究和主要本科院校的本科生以及研究生参与研究来履行重要的教育使命。项目负责人将通过课堂活动和实地项目与来自加州农村高中和明尼苏达州圣保罗特许学校的高中生合作。

This project continues a 7-year study of environmental and demographic variation across the geographic range of a native California plant in order to understand the ecological and evolutionary limits on an organism's distribution. Prior work showed that environmental variables related to climate, soils, and interactions with insect pollinators and seed-eaters all change across the plant's range. Population growth rates, a measure of population viability, also decline toward the range edge. Over the next five years, research will examine the role that dormant seeds, which remain buried in the soil for 2-5 years, play in allowing populations to weather adverse environments and persist long-term. The project will also determine range-wide differences in the longevity of dormant seeds.With impending climate change, parts of the current geographic range of many organisms are likely to become unsuitable for continued persistence. Understanding what limits species from colonizing unfavorable environments now can help forecast species responses to deteriorating conditions within their current range. In addition to its scientific impacts, the project will serve an important educational mission by engaging high school students, undergraduate students from research and primarily undergraduate institutions, and graduate students in research. Project leaders will work with high school students from a rural California high school and from a charter school in St Paul Minnesota through in-class activities and field projects.