NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

研究员姓名：Tara M. smiley提案号：1612002该奖项资助美国国家科学基金会（NSF） 2016年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物馆藏进行研究。该奖学金支持一项研究和培训计划，使研究员能够以高度创新的方式采用生物收集的变革性方法来应对生物学方面的重大挑战。塔拉·m·斯迈利奖学金的研究计划的标题是“气候变化下的生态相互作用和群落聚集：新生代的视角”。这项奖学金的主办机构是俄勒冈州立大学，赞助科学家是丽贝卡·特里博士。本研究评估了地质历史上两个不同量级、速率和环境背景的气候变暖间隔中支撑群落聚集和持续的过程。研究结果将促进对人为气候变化的理解，因为随着人类活动迅速改变自然环境，新的气候和非模拟生物群落将变得更加普遍。该研究员正在研究群落生态学的三个方面：1)本地尺度的物种更替；2)沿体型和资源利用梯度的生态位动态；&#8232；3)群落内部、功能类和大小类之间的生物量和能量流动等更高层次的聚集特性。本研究主要针对小型哺乳动物（啮齿动物和足形动物），因为它们在分类和生态上具有多样性，而且数量丰富，便于在化石记录中进行群落水平的分析。小型哺乳动物群落也是生态系统健康的指标；因此，了解对过去气候变暖的基线生态响应是预测和减少未来生物多样性损失的优先事项。该研究员正在使用来自俄勒冈州约翰·戴和加利福尼亚州巴斯托的特殊化石收藏，这些化石收藏在约翰·戴化石床国家纪念碑、华盛顿大学伯克博物馆和加州大学古生物博物馆，以回答这些问题，并通过激光烧蚀质谱和高分辨率x射线计算机微断层扫描（micro CT）生成新的生态数据集。该研究员正在接受有关稳定同位素方法的培训，开发生态位模型，使用微型CT方法和数据集，并开发分析评估群落动态的技能。为了扩大对生物学的参与，该研究员正在指导本科生从博物馆标本中收集生态数据，并通过俄勒冈州立大学的科学和数学研究性学习经验项目，开发俄勒冈州小型哺乳动物生态学的探究式模块，以吸引年轻、缺乏教育的学生参与生物学和保护。

Fellow's Name: Tara M. SmileyProposal Number: 1612002This award funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Tara M. Smiley is "Ecological interactions and community assembly under climate change: a Cenozoic perspective." The host institution for this fellowship is Oregon State University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Rebecca Terry. This research evaluates the processes underpinning community assembly and persistence during two climate-warming intervals in the geologic past that differed in magnitude, rate, and environmental context. The research results will promote understanding of anthropogenic climate change, because novel climates and non-analog biotic communities will become more common as human activities rapidly change natural environments. The Fellow is examining three aspects of community ecology: 1) turnover of species at the local scale; 2) niche dynamics along body size and resource use gradients;
 and 3) higher-level aggregate properties such as biomass and energy flow within communities and among functional and size classes. This research focuses on small mammals (rodents and lagomorphs) because they are taxonomically and ecologically diverse and are numerically abundant, facilitating community-level analyses in the fossil record. Small mammal communities are also indicators of ecosystem health; therefore understanding baseline ecological response to past climate warming is a priority for forecasting and minimizing biodiversity loss in the future. The Fellow is using the exceptional fossil collections from the John Day, Oregon, and Barstow, California, formations housed at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, the University of Washington Burke Museum, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology to answer these questions, and to generate novel ecological datasets via laser-ablation mass spectrometry and high-resolution X-ray computed microtomography (micro CT). The Fellow is receiving training in stable isotope methods, developing niche models, using micro CT methods and datasets, and developing skills for the analytical assessment of community dynamics. To broaden participation in biology, the Fellow is mentoring undergraduate students in the collection of ecological data from museum specimens and developing an inquiry-based module on small-mammal ecology in Oregon to engage young, underserved students in biology and conservation through Oregon State University's Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences program.