CAREER: Islands as Models to Study Effects of Multidimensional Selection

该项目将利用加拉帕戈斯群岛研究由什么管理物种多样性的问题，那里影响多样性的因素复杂程度不一。加拉帕戈斯岛的年龄从年轻的(不到5万年)到古老的(超过400万年)不等。这一年龄范围可用来研究当群落简单，相互作用的物种很少时(在年轻的岛屿上)，以及当社区更复杂并以大量的生物相互作用为特征时(在较老的岛屿上)，生物多样性是如何形成的。该项目将测量形成新物种的速度和在一组约80种陆生蜗牛中积累的多样性，形成加拉帕戈斯地区物种多样性最大的扩散。我们将结合实地和实验室研究来了解自然选择的复杂性是如何影响进化速度的。爱达荷大学为本科生开设的一门课程将向学生介绍生物多样性模式，并引导他们了解产生这些模式的基本进化核心原则，使用一系列类似于加拉帕戈斯研究探险的太平洋西北部实地考察。学生还将通过探险学习胶囊(视频和综合教材)跟踪加拉帕戈斯的研究，这将指导和激励他们制定自己的当地研究项目。外联活动还包括编写加拉帕戈斯陆生蜗牛双语指南，为加拉帕戈斯公园护林员、工作人员科学家和导游举办演讲和讲习班，并在科学出版物、教科书、杂志和大众媒体上传播研究成果。在加拉帕戈斯，随着物种聚集在更加多样化和复杂的群落中，从年轻的岛屿到古老的岛屿，选择压力的数量不断增加。尽管已有大量研究致力于在简单环境中量化选择，但仍有必要刻画复杂自然生物系统中多重选择压力的影响和相互作用，拟议的工作将填补这一空白。该项目将表征蜗牛的形态和生理特征的变化，并量化加拉帕戈斯特有的约80种Naesiotus属陆地蜗牛及其大陆近亲的多种环境因素的变化。将重建该谱系的物种水平系统发育历史，以确定导致加拉帕戈斯Naesiotus蜗牛多样性的独立殖民事件的数量，并将表型-环境关联分析置于系统发育信息框架内。然后，这些数据将被用来解决与多重选择压力(即，增加的复杂性)对这一行业的表型变化和适应速度的影响有关的假设。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will study the question of what governs the diversity of species using the Galapagos Islands, where factors influencing diversity range in their complexity. The islands of the Galapagos vary in age from young (less than 50,000 years old) to old (more than 4 million years old). This range in age can be used to study how biological diversity is shaped when communities are simple with few interacting species (on young islands), and when communities are more complex and characterized by numerous biological interactions (on older islands). This project will measure the rate at which new species are formed and diversity accumulates across a group of approximately 80 species of land snails forming the Galapagos's largest proliferation of species diversity. A combination of field and laboratory studies will be used to understand how the rate of evolution is influenced by the complexity of natural selection. A course for undergraduate students at the University of Idaho will introduce students to biodiversity patterns and guide them through the underlying evolutionary core principles generating these patterns using a series of field research excursions in the Pacific Northwest that is analogous to the Galapagos research expeditions. Students will also follow Galapagos research via Adventure Learning capsules (videos and integrated teaching material) which will guide and inspire them in the development of their own local research projects. Outreach activities also include developing a bilingual English-Spanish guidebook of Galapagos terrestrial snails, presentations and workshops for Galapagos park rangers, staff scientists, and guides, and disseminating research results in scientific publications, textbooks, magazines and the popular press.Islands are living laboratories where evolutionary change is clear, tangible, and can be directly observed. On Galapagos, the number of selection pressures increases from young to old islands as species assemble in more diverse and complex communities. Although substantial research efforts have been devoted to quantify selection in simple environments, there is a need to characterize the effects and interactions of multiple selection pressures in complex natural biological systems, and the proposed work will fill this gap. The project will characterize variation in morphological and physiological traits of snails and quantify variation in multiple environmental factors for the approximately 80 Galapagos endemic land snail species of the genus Naesiotus and their mainland relatives. Species-level phylogenetic history of the lineage will be reconstructed to determine the number of independent colonization events that led to the diversity of Galapagos Naesiotus snails, and put the phenotype-environment association analyses in a phylogenetically-informed framework. The data will then be used to address hypotheses related to the effects of multiple selection pressures (i.e., increased complexity) on the rate of phenotypic change and adaptation in this lineage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.