Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Time after Time: Adaptive Seasonal Timing Drives the Sequential Origin of Community Biodiversity

季节性生命周期的时间是许多生物过程的关键问题，包括生物多样性的产生和维持以及农业生产和粮食安全。动物和植物必须使它们的生命与季节同步，以避免受冻或过热，并利用季节性资源。这项拨款的目标是了解历史和当代季节变化如何促进昆虫群落的生物多样性。在短期内，这种变化导致了新的作物害虫和相关寄生虫群落的快速演变。提出的研究测试1)相同的过程是否解释了更古老的群落多样化，以及2)气候变化是否会破坏或促进未来的多样化。研究结果可以为许多科学领域提供信息，从新物种起源的基础研究到农业害虫的应用控制。该项目包括与高中教师和学生一起举办讲习班，以建立支持“边做边学”并符合国家标准的课程，并为研究生和博士后提供培训。该项目包括双翅目害虫的基因组分析，包括苹果蝇和蓝莓蛆蝇，以及攻击这些苍蝇的拟寄生蜂群落。基因组工作将整合以下内容：1)从激素和分子角度对蝇类和黄蜂的越冬冬眠进行功能研究；2)计算模拟蝇类及其寄生虫对气候变化导致的预计季节变化的反应。

The timing of seasonal life cycles is a critical question underlying many biological processes, including the generation and maintenance of biodiversity and agriculture production and food security. Animals and plants must synchronize their lives with the seasons to avoid freezing or overheating and to exploit seasonal resources. The goal of this grant is to understand how historic and contemporary shifts in seasonality can facilitate biological diversification in insect communities. In the short term, such shifts have caused rapid evolution of new crop pests and associated parasite communities. The proposed research tests 1) whether the same processes explain more ancient diversification of communities, and 2) whether changing climates will disrupt or promote diversification in the future. The results may inform many scientific fields, from basic research on the genesis of new species to applied control of agricultural pests. This project includes workshops with high school teachers and students to build curricula supporting "learning by doing" and meeting national standards, as well as providing training for graduate students and postdocs. This project includes genomic analysis of dipteran pest insects, including the apple fly Rhagoletis pomonella and blueberry maggot fly Rhagoletis mendax plus the community of parasitoid wasps that attack these flies. Genomic work will integrate with 1) functional studies of the overwintering hibernation of both the flies and the wasps from hormonal and molecular perspectives, and 2) computational simulations of the responses of the flies and their parasites to projected seasonal shifts resulting from climate change.