EAPSI: Comparative Biodiversity and the Hermit Crab Tree of Life: An East Meets West Approach

在墨西哥湾深水地平线石油泄漏等环境灾难之后，记录海底动物群落构成的全面调查发现，螃蟹、虾和龙虾的健康状况和多样性发生了变化。该项目的主要目标是利用DNA序列来确定西太平洋寄居蟹物种的真实数量，并了解它们之间的遗传关系。西太平洋项目的结果将与墨西哥湾类似研究的结果相结合，以确定可能与环境影响有关的寄居蟹多样性的任何趋势。由于缺乏对西太平洋寄居蟹种类数量的了解，阻碍了对海底动物群落健康状况的更广泛研究，进而阻碍了对该地区整体生态系统健康状况的更广泛研究。研究表明，基于DNA序列的物种身份测定提供了物种多样性敏感性的最高标准。在新加坡国立大学Peter Ng教授和经验丰富的研究人员的指导下，我们将利用现代实验室技术，对保存在新加坡李光前自然历史博物馆的大量西太平洋标本进行DNA测序。由此产生的DNA序列将被算法分析，以建立标本的物种身份，以及标本之间的遗传关系。本研究的主要影响是增加了我们对世界寄居蟹多样性的认识，以及关于西太平洋海洋寄居蟹的地理分布、多样性和进化关系的对应信息。另一个成果是成立了一个多国工作组，该工作组将把申请人和新加坡和美国在该领域的主要作者的努力结合起来。这项合作努力的建立代表了一个机会，可以增加国家科学基金会资助在国际科学界的影响。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会和新加坡国家研究基金会共同资助，隶属于东亚和太平洋暑期研究所项目，支持美国研究生进行暑期研究。

In the wake of environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, thorough surveys documenting the makeup of sea-floor animal communities have observed changes in the health and diversity of crabs, shrimp, and lobsters. The primary objective of this project is to use DNA sequences to determine the true number of hermit crab species in the western Pacific and understand the genetic relationships among them. The results from this project in the West Pacific will be combined with results from similar studies in the Gulf of Mexico to identify any trends in hermit crab diversity that may be related to environmental impacts. Lack of knowledge about the number of hermit crab species in the West Pacific prevents broader study of the health of sea-floor animal communities and, by extension, overall ecosystem health in the region. Studies show that determinations of species identity based on DNA sequences provides the highest standard of sensitivity to species diversity. With the guidance of Professor Peter Ng and experienced researchers at the National University of Singapore, DNA sequences for numerous West Pacific specimens stored in the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in Singapore will be collected using modern laboratory techniques. The resulting DNA sequences will be analyzed algorithmically to establish both the species identity of the specimen, and the genetic relationships among specimens. The primary impact of the proposed research is that it will increase our understanding of world-wide hermit crab diversity and information about the correspondence between geographical distribution, diversity, and evolutionary relationships among marine hermit crabs in the western Pacific. An additional outcome is the formation of a multinational working group that will combine the efforts of the applicant and key authors in the field from Singapore and the United States. The establishment of this collaborative effort represents an opportunity to increase the impact of National Science Foundation funding within the international science community. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Singapore.