CAREER: Understanding Evolutionary Responses to Climate Change Across Space and Time

持续的气候变化对全球生物多样性构成重大威胁。预测未来气候变化后果的一种方法是研究脆弱物种如何受到历史气候模式的影响。 自然历史博物馆中保存下来的标本收藏提供了这样一个了解过去的窗口。从这些标本中提取和测序DNA的新方法为揭示西部栅栏蜥蜴在上个世纪的进化变化提供了令人兴奋的机会。 这项研究检查了大约50年和100年前的两项研究的标本。这些蜥蜴是在加州内华达州山脉的纬度梯度上的特定地点收集的。他们将与现代后代的人口样本进行比较。DNA序列将与每个标本的详细3D形态扫描配对进行分析。该研究将评估该物种的人口统计学如何随着时间的推移而变化。分析将揭示人口如何应对气候变化。它将评估哪些基因和特征参与了当地的适应。将使用本研究的数据和工作流程开发新的研究和学习体验，以教授本科生在大数据和科学计算方面的关键技能。这将通过加州大学伯克利分校的一个项目进行，旨在解决数据科学所有领域的代表性不足问题。 此外，该项目中收集的数据将用于开发增强现实教育游戏。该游戏将挑战高中学生团体收集和分析气候变化影响的数据，同时探索真实的户外空间。了解物种如何应对和适应非平稳的环境变化是现代生物学的一个重大挑战。研究种群水平的反应对于了解在持续的气候变化面前如何保持遗传多样性、种群连通性和适应潜力至关重要。 该项目将在多个尺度上进行分析，以检查高分辨率的基因组和形态测量数据集，这些数据集捕捉自然种群在空间和时间上对气候变化的反应。 这些数据集将建立在当代收集的西部围栏蜥蜴（Sceloporus octagentalis）与标本从同一研究区域收集50年和100年前，并将与环境地理信息系统数据对应的每个时间段进行分析。 这些对气候变化的微进化反应的纵向分析将解决环境变化对人口水平影响的问题。哪些基因和特征与适应气候变化有关？环境变化如何影响种群动态和遗传多样性？这项研究的结果将提供基因组和形态学数据的地方适应从一个世纪前的开拓性研究之一，未来的学生和研究人员的利益。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Ongoing climate change presents significant threat to global biodiversity. One way to predict the consequences of future climate change is to examine how vulnerable species have been affected by historical climatic patterns. Collections of preserved specimens in natural history museums provide such a window into the past. New methods for extracting and sequencing DNA from these specimens open up exciting opportunities to reveal evolutionary changes in the western fence lizard over the last century. This research examine specimens from two studies about 50 and 100 years ago. The lizards were collected at specific sites along a latitudinal gradient in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. They will be compared with population samples from their modern day descendants. The DNA sequences will be paired with detailed 3D morphological scans of each specimen for analysis. The research will evaluate how population demographics in this species have changed through time. The analysis will reveal how populations have moved in response to a changing climate. It will assess which genes and traits are involved in local adaptation. A new research and learning experience will be developed using the data and workflow from this study to teach undergraduates critical skills in big data and scientific computing. This will be conducted through a program at UC Berkeley designed to address underrepresentation in all areas of data science. Additionally, the data collected in this project will be used to develop an augmented reality educational game. The game will challenge high school student groups to collect and analyze data on the effects of climate change while exploring a real outdoor space. Understanding how species will respond and adapt to non-stationary environmental change is a major challenge in modern biology. Research on population-level responses is critical for understanding how genetic diversity, population connectivity, and adaptive potential can be maintained in the face of ongoing climate change. This project will conduct analyses at multiple scales to examine high resolution genomic and morphometric datasets that capture responses to climate change in natural populations across space and time. These datasets will be built from contemporary collections of western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) paired with specimens collected from the same study area 50 years and 100 years ago and will be analyzed alongside environmental GIS data corresponding to each time period. These longitudinal analyses of microevolutionary responses to climate change will address questions about the population-level effects of environmental change. Which genes and traits are involved in adaptation to climate change? How do changing environments affect population dynamics and genetic diversity? The results of this study will make available genomic and morphological data on one of the pioneering studies of local adaptation from a century ago, to the benefit of future students and researchers.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.