NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Deciphering the evolutionary dynamics of wild bees in a warming world

本行动资助NSF 2019年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物馆藏进行研究。该奖学金支持研究和培训将以创新的方式利用生物收集的研究员。这位研究员正在调查最近动物体型减小的环境原因。在物种和全球范围内，动物的体型都在缩小，这表明它们对过去50-100年间发生的一些重大环境变化做出了反应。这项研究通过解开影响动物体型、温度和资源丰富度的两个常见因素的影响，阐明了是什么环境因素导致了体型的缩小。此外，虽然大多数研究没有考虑物种是否在基因上对气候变化做出反应，但这项研究揭示了温度或资源丰富是否导致种群进化。揭示生物对什么样的压力做出反应以及它们是如何做出反应的，对于我们理解生物如何对快速的环境变化做出反应以及影响保护工作是至关重要的。这位研究员正在将过去一百年来的本地蜜蜂Ceratina calcarata的博物馆标本与气候和土地利用数据相结合，以重建蜜蜂种群如何对环境变化做出反应。由于接近的种群经历了相似的温度，但不同的土地利用制度，这是当地资源丰富程度的一个代表，研究人员有机会解开温度和资源丰富程度对体型的影响。这位研究员正在追踪这些种群中体型的时间变化，看看体型是否与年平均气温或当地资源丰富程度有关。这位研究员还使用历史和近期种群的比较基因组学来确定基因组中被确定为处于选择状态的区域的基因频率的时空变化是否与温度或资源丰度可预测地相关，这表明了适应性进化。该研究员正在接受分子遗传学和基因组学方法的培训，这将扩大其对进化基因组学的理解，并补充其在进化生态学和行为生态学方面的背景。此外，他还指导研究生和本科生使用生物收集、实验设计、假设检验、手稿准备和出版，以及与当地中学合作开发基于探究的科学模块。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. The fellow is investigating the environmental causes of recent decreases in animal body size. Across species and the globe, animal body size has decreased suggesting a response to some major environmental change occurring over the past 50-100 years. This research clarifies what environmental factor is driving this decrease in body size by untangling the effects of two common factors known to affect animal body size, temperature and resource abundance. Additionally, while most studies have not considered if species have been responding genetically to climate change, this study sheds light on whether temperature or resource abundance is causing populations to evolve. Uncovering what pressures organisms are responding to and how they are responding is fundamental to our understanding of how organisms react to rapid environmental change and will affect conservation efforts.The fellow is combining museum specimens of the native bee Ceratina calcarata from the past hundred years with climate and land use data to reconstruct how bee populations have responded to environmental change. Since close populations have experienced similar temperature but different land use regimes, a proxy for local resource abundance, the fellow has the opportunity to uncouple the effect of temperature and resource abundance on body size. The fellow is tracking the temporal changes in body size among these populations to see if size correlates with the average yearly temperature or the local resource abundance. The fellow is also using comparative genomics of historical and recent populations to determine if temporal and spatial changes in gene frequencies at areas of the genome identified as being under selection correlate predictably with temperature or resource abundance, indicative of adaptive evolution. The fellow is being trained in molecular genetics and genomic methods, which will expand the fellow's understanding of evolutionary genomics and complement the fellow's background in evolutionary ecology and behavioral ecology. Additionally, the fellow is mentoring graduate and undergraduate students in using biological collections, experimental design, hypothesis testing, and manuscript preparation and publishing, as well as developing inquiry-based science modules in collaboration with local middle schools.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.