DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Temperature-Dependent Phylogeography and Limits of Thermal Tolerance in Anolis carolinensis

该项目旨在了解限制陆生外温热(冷血)动物(如爬行动物、两栖动物和昆虫)耐热性的生理压力，以及这些限制如何影响气候变化的物种生存能力。极端温度阻止所有放热物种有效利用氧气的假设已被广泛应用于解释热耐受极限。然而，这一假设在水生物种中得到了最严格的检验，这引发了一个问题：同样的生理压力是否会影响呼吸空气的物种？使用绿色变色蜥蜴(Anolis Carolinensis)，研究人员试图通过将生理实验与基因组测序相结合来直接比较极端温度下的基因反应和已知的对低氧的遗传反应来回答这个问题。通过这种方法，研究人员试图揭示陆地外温动物生存、运行和适应新的热生态位的生理机制和进化过程。为了充分了解气候变化将如何影响生物多样性，将环境变化的信息与有关物种通过生理和遗传机制缓冲、适应和适应这种变化的能力的数据相结合是至关重要的。该项目旨在通过将有关物种范围内温度差异的信息与近几年才提供的关于蜥蜴热生物学和基因组资源的丰富知识相结合来实现这一点。将这些工具结合起来，将能够更好地预测气候变化将如何影响世界各地的物种范围和数量。这项研究还将培养一名研究生，并将为几名本科生提供研究经验。

This project aims to understand the physiological stresses that limit thermal tolerance in terrestrial ectothermic ("cold-blooded") animals (such as reptiles, amphibians and insects) and how those limitations affect a species' ability to survive changes climate. The hypothesis that extreme temperatures prevent all ectothermic species from effectively using oxygen has been widely applied to explain the limits of thermal tolerance. However, this hypothesis has been most heavily tested in aquatic species, raising the question: Does the same physiological stress effect air breathing species? Using the green anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis), the investigators seek to answer this question by combining physiological experimentation with genome sequencing to directly compare gene response under extreme temperatures to known genetic responses to hypoxia. Through this approach, the investigators seek to shed valuable light on the physiological mechanisms and evolutionary processes that allow terrestrial ectotherms to survive, function, and adapt to novel thermal niches.In order to fully understand how climate change will affect biodiversity it is essential to integrate information about environmental change with data about species' ability to buffer, acclimate, and adapt to that change via physiological and genetic mechanisms. This project serves to accomplish this by combining information about thermal differences within the range of a species with the wealth of knowledge on the thermal biology of lizards and genomic resources only made available within the last few years. Combining these tools will allow for better predictions of how changes in climate will affect species' ranges and abundances around the world. This research will also result in the training of a graduate student and will provide research experiences for several undergraduates.