DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Urbanization and Avian Biodiversity

大多数人现在生活在城市环境中。尽管有城市化的趋势，但人们对城市环境对许多动物的进化和生态的影响知之甚少。在欧洲，人们发现城市鸟类和乡村鸟类的一种基因不同。该基因编码一种蛋白质，该蛋白质将一种重要的激素运送进出细胞。这种变化被认为通过影响情绪和行为来帮助鸟类以不同的方式科普城市环境中的压力。然而，一个主要的问题仍然存在，这种遗传变异是否始终对应于跨物种和世界各地的城市化？ 这项研究将探索这种基因如何在美国太平洋沿岸和秘鲁亚马逊西部城市内外的不同鸟类物种中变化。 研究不同地区鸟类多样性的遗传差异将使我们对城市化如何影响鸟类进化有一个全面的了解。这项以城市为重点的研究将使生物科学与人类居民更加相关，并将通过认识到我们与野生动物共享这些景观来告知城市的发展方式。此外，这项国际研究将促进秘鲁和美国之间的科学交流。 这项研究将集中在与5-羟色胺转运蛋白相关的遗传标记上。为了了解这些标记的背景遗传多样性，研究人员将首先以地理学尺度描述变异。他们将从自然历史博物馆收集代表六个重点物种的组织样本，并对相关标记区域的DNA进行测序。然后，研究人员将与秘鲁当地科学家沿着，在两个大城市、两个小城市和两个农村/自然地区捕捉相同六个物种的鸟类。将对相同的遗传标记进行测序，并评估研究中心之间的变异和较大的地理分布模式。由于以前没有进行过多物种，多环境的比较方法，因此结果中的任何模式都有助于我们了解热带地区的遗传多样性及其在抵御城市化方面的作用。如果精细空间尺度上的模式与大空间尺度上的模式一致，则表明与欧洲不同，城市化对这些物种中该基因的等位基因分布没有重要影响。如果5-羟色胺转运体的遗传多样性在精细空间尺度上而不是在大空间尺度上是不同的，而中性遗传标记在精细和大空间尺度上显示出相同的多样性模式，这将表明该基因可能受到与城市化相关的选择。如果所有的遗传标记在精细的空间尺度上都表现出与大空间尺度上的差异，那么就需要进一步的研究来区分生态学和物种选择在城市地区的作用，这使得这个项目成为在新环境中快速适应性进化的一个有价值的第一次尝试。

Most humans now live in urban environments. Despite the trend towards urbanization, little is known about the influence of urban environments on the evolution and ecology of many animals. In Europe, a gene has been found to vary between urban and rural birds. This gene encodes a protein that transports an important hormone in and out of cells. This variation is thought to help birds cope differently with stress in urban settings by influencing mood and behavior. However, a major question remains, does this genetic variation consistently correspond to urbanization across species and around the world? This research will explore how this gene varies in different bird species inside and outside cities in the Pacific coast of the US and western Amazon of Peru. Examining the genetic differences in a diversity of birds in different locations will give us general insight into how urbanization affects bird evolution. This urban focused research will make biological science more relevant to human residents and will inform the way cities grow by recognizing that we share these landscapes with wildlife. In addition, this international research will promote scientific exchange between Peru and the US. This research will focus on genetic markers associated with a serotonin transporter. To understand the background genetic diversity in these markers, the researchers will first characterize the variation at a biogeographic scale. They will do this by taking tissue samples from natural history museum collections representing the full range of six focal species and sequencing the DNA in the relevant marker regions. Then, along with local scientists in Peru, the researchers will catch birds of the same six species in two large cities, two small cities, and two rural/natural areas. The same genetic markers will be sequenced and variation between the study sites and the larger biogeographic patterns will be assessed. Because a multi-species, multi-environment, comparative approach has not been carried out before, any pattern in the results with inform our understanding of genetic diversity in the tropics and its role in resilience against urbanization. If the patterns at a fine spatial scale are consistent with those at a large spatial scale, it will show that, unlike in Europe, urbanization has not had an important effect on the distribution of alleles of this gene in these species. If the serotonin transporter genetic diversity is different at a fine spatial scale rather than a large spatial scale, while neutral genetic markers show the same patterns of diversity at fine and large spatial scales, it will indicate that this gene has perhaps been under selection associated with urbanization. If all genetic markers show differences at fine spatial scales from large spatial scales, further investigation will be needed to tease apart the roles of ecology and species selection in urban areas, making this project a valuable first foray into a case of rapid adaptive evolution in a novel environment.