NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Context-Dependent Life History Responses to Climate Change

该行动为2019财年美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金提供资金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。拟议中的研究将检验气候变化正在推动高海拔生态系统变化的假设。这项研究结合了29年来现有数据的见解，以及新的实地观察和实验，以了解极端天气和环境变量（如气温变暖和积雪减少）如何影响快速变化的山区环境中的蝾螈。除了广泛适用于其他两栖动物外，该研究还将为快速变化的高山生态系统和其他经历气候变化的生态系统中的许多其他物种提供保护方法。两栖动物是地球上最受威胁的脊椎动物之一，高山环境正因气候变化而发生巨大的生态变化。迫切需要了解物种对气候变化的响应机制，以便为特定的环境环境设计有效的保护措施。该研究员将让来自生物学领域代表性不足群体的本科生参与该项目，并开发教学工具，帮助来自不同背景的学生为研究生研究做好准备。首先，该研究员将利用长期人口统计数据，探索过去气候变化对物候学（如繁殖和冬眠的时间）和生活史（如身体状况、生存、繁殖力、寿命等）的影响。复杂的统计模型将用于评估生活在同一地点但在不同环境背景下受气候变化影响的多表型成年变种（水生和陆生）蝾螈种群动态之间的关系和联系。其次，本研究将比较不同环境背景下（使用植入数据记录仪的蝾螈作为移动温度传感器）和加速融雪条件下（结合生物物理蝾螈模型和融雪日期的实验操作）气候趋势对温度和水分胁迫的影响，这是两栖动物的重要生理考虑因素。本研究的结果将揭示不同环境背景下气候变化的不对称生活史影响如何促进或阻碍种群对气候变化的适应能力，并为其他物种如何应对气候变化提供案例研究。研究员将参与职业发展活动，如高级统计培训、提案写作和教学。该研究员将开发和教授一门本科生公平课程，发起一个多样性期刊俱乐部，并创建一个数据库，收录来自代表性不足群体的生物科学实践者的带注释的研究实例，这些实例将用于本科生课程并在网上传播。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, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The proposed research will test the hypothesis that climate variation is driving changes in high-elevation ecosystems. The study combines insights from 29 years of existing data with new field observations and experiments to understand how extreme weather and environmental variables such as warming temperatures and reduced snowpack affect salamanders in a rapidly changing mountain environment. In addition to being broadly applicable to other amphibians, this research will inform conservation approaches for many other species in rapidly changing high-mountain ecosystems and other ecosystems experiencing climate variation. Amphibians are among the most threatened vertebrate animals on the planet, and high-mountain environments are undergoing dramatic ecological changes in response to climate variation. There is an urgent need to understand the mechanisms of species responses to climate variation to design effective conservation measures for particular environmental contexts. The fellow will involve undergraduate students from groups underrepresented in biology in the project and develop teaching tools that prepare students from diverse backgrounds to pursue and fund graduate research.First, the fellow will explore the effects of past climatic variation on phenology (e.g., timing of reproduction and hibernation) and life history (e.g., body condition, survival, fecundity, longevity, etc.) using long-term demographic data. Sophisticated statistical models will be used to evaluate relationships and links between population dynamics in salamanders that have polyphenic adult morphs (aquatic and terrestrial) that live in the same location but are subject to climate variation under different environmental contexts. Second, this research will compare temperature and water stress impacts of climate trends, which are crucial physiological considerations for amphibians, under different environmental contexts (using data-logger-implanted salamanders as mobile temperature sensors) and under conditions of accelerated snowmelt (by combining biophysical salamander models and experimental manipulation of snowmelt date). Results from this research will inform how asymmetric life history impacts of climate variation under different environmental contexts can promote or hinder population resilience to a changing climate and provide a case study of how other species might respond. The fellow will participate in career development activities such as advanced statistical training, proposal writing, and teaching. The fellow will develop and teach an undergraduate equity course, initiate a diversity journal club, and create a database of annotated examples of research by biological science practitioners from under-represented groups that will be used in undergraduate courses and disseminated online.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.