NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

博士后：Jacob Mason heberling1612079本行动资助2016财年美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物收藏进行研究。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。这项奖学金的研究计划的标题是“利用几个世纪的植物标本室数据来跟踪植物入侵过程：性状变化，局部适应和快速进化。”该奖学金的主办机构是卡内基自然历史博物馆和田纳西大学诺克斯维尔分校，赞助科学家是dr。Stephen Tonsor和Susan Kalisz。本研究的目的是了解植物入侵的基本过程，包括植物引进后性状变化的频率和重要性，这些潜在性状变化的方向和速度，以及局部适应对入侵成功的影响程度。人类活动的全球化已经重新洗牌了世界各地的植物群落，造成了巨大的环境破坏和经济损失。在这项研究中，研究员正在利用几个世纪的生物收集以及功能性状生态学的最新进展来了解基本的植物入侵过程。具体来说，研究员正在利用卡内基自然历史博物馆植物标本室的广泛收藏，并补充了来自世界各地其他植物标本室的标本。研究员正在使用这些从19世纪初至今收集的美国东部引进和本地物种的标本，来测量与碳增益、资源利用、繁殖/扩散能力和时空物候有关的特征。主要研究目标包括利用这些数据跟踪植物入侵过程中的表型变化，评估局部适应在了解和预测物种成功中的作用。该研究员的项目促进在基于性状的生态学这一新兴领域中使用植物标本室，并将大大扩展现有的全球性状数据库，以促进对基本生物学问题的大规模研究。该研究员正在接受有关植物标本室方法、最新统计进展、地理信息系统（GIS）和有效标本地理参考软件开发的技能培训。职业发展活动包括建立研究合作，发展广泛的研究组合，包括植物标本馆数据和进化分析，并鼓励多样化的参与，以突出生物收藏作为更广泛社区知识的重要来源的重要性。该研究员通过与西部PA社区组织的互动，包括当地的基础教育计划和博物馆讲解员培训，促进了基于收藏的研究的使用。

Postdoctoral Fellow: Jacob Mason HeberlingProposal Number 1612079This action 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 J. Mason Heberling is "Leveraging centuries of herbarium data to track plant invasion processes: trait shifts, local adaptation, and rapid evolution." The host institutions for this fellowship are the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Stephen Tonsor and Susan Kalisz. The goal of this research is to understand fundamental plant invasion processes, including the frequency and importance of trait shifts following plant introductions, the direction and rate of these potential trait changes, and the degree to which local adaptation influences invasion success. Globalization of human activities has reshuffled plant communities across the world, resulting in substantial environmental damage and economic losses. In this research, the Fellow is leveraging centuries of biological collections alongside recent advances in functional trait ecology to understand fundamental plant invasion processes. Specifically, the Fellow is utilizing the extensive collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History herbarium, supplemented with specimens from other herbaria worldwide. The Fellow is using these specimens of introduced and native Eastern US species, collected from early 1800s to today, to measure traits relating to carbon gain, resource-use, reproductive/dispersal ability, and phenology across space and time. The main research objectives include using these data to track phenotypic change through the course of plant invasion and assess the role of local adaption to understand and predict species success. The Fellow's project fosters the use of herbaria in the rising field of trait-based ecology, and will substantially expand existing global trait databases to facilitate research on fundamental biological questions at a large scale.The Fellow is receiving training in skills associated with herbarium methods, recent statistical advancements, geographic information systems (GIS), and software development for efficient specimen georeferencing. Career development activities include building research collaborations, developing a broad research portfolio to include herbarium data and evolutionary analyses, and encouraging diverse participation to highlight the importance of biological collections as a vital source of knowledge to the broader community. The Fellow is promoting the use of collections-based research through interaction with community organizations in Western PA, including local elementary education programs and museum docent training.