RUI: The long-term consequences of anthropogenic activity: a comparative analysis of human-mediated evolution and the origins of rural commensalism

该项目使用一种原产于东南亚和太平洋的鸟类--海洋燕子，来确定物种是如何在人类环境中长期栖息和繁衍的。随着人类重塑全球环境，有效的保护战略的一个关键组成部分是了解和预测植物和动物将如何对人类景观变化做出反应。城市环境中的动植物可以快速进化，这表明一些物种可能能够在靠近人类的地方茁壮成长。小型农业村庄已经存在了12000多年；成功地生活在这些环境中的物种为了解人类活动对进化过程的长期影响提供了一个独特的窗口。海洋燕子在人类结构上筑巢，在农田上觅食。乡村环境的扩张因此为这些物种创造了广泛的新栖息地。这个项目将严格测试关于人类景观改变在塑造过去10,000年来海燕进化史中所扮演的角色的假设。这种新的方法广泛适用于其他物种，并将为物种如何响应和适应人类环境提供新的线索。该项目以一家为拉美裔服务的机构为基础，将为本科生提供广泛的研究经验。这个项目将利用广泛的新的地理采样、博物馆标本、大型地理空间数据集和尖端基因组学方法来研究燕子如何适应与人类近距离生活(人类共生)。由于不同的大洋燕子谱系在不同的时间长度内是共生的，因此有可能在由两个共生谱系和两个非共生谱系组成的比较框架内，在多个时间尺度上审查共生的起源和传播。每种类型的一个谱系都与人类有广泛的联系，其他人的联系更近。这个项目将1)使用物种分布模型来评估气候变化和新石器时代后人类景观改变在塑造人口历史中的相对作用，特别是范围的扩大和种群的分化；2)使用高分辨率的全基因组序列数据来确定共生行为是通过表型可塑性、在谱系之间独立进化还是通过单一起源的导入传播；以及3)评估当代人类介导的杂交和先前孤立的群体之间生殖障碍的侵蚀的证据。这项裁决反映了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 uses Oceanic swallows, a group of birds native to southeast Asia and the Pacific, to determine how species inhabit and flourish in human environments over long periods of time. As humans reshape the global environment, a critical component of effective conservation strategies is understanding and predicting how plants and animals will respond to human landscape alterations. Plants and animals in urban environments can evolve rapidly, indicating that some species may be able to thrive in close proximity to humans. Small agricultural villages have persisted for over 12,000 years; species that successfully inhabit these environments offer a unique window into the long-term effects of human activity on evolutionary processes. Oceanic swallows build their nests on human structures and forage over agricultural fields. The spread of rural environments has thus created extensive new habitat for these species. This project will rigorously test hypotheses about the role of human landscape modification in shaping the evolutionary history of Oceanic swallows over the last 10,000 years. This novel approach is broadly applicable to other species and will shed new light on how species respond and adapt to human environments. The project is based at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, and will involve extensive research experiences for undergraduate students. It also includes the development of a hands-on, high school- level teaching module on urban evolution.This project will leverage extensive new geographic sampling, museum specimens, large geospatial datasets, and cutting-edge genomic approaches to examine how swallows have adapted to living in close proximity to humans (human commensalism). As different Oceanic swallow lineages have been commensal for different lengths of time, it is possible to examine the origins and spread of commensalism across multiple temporal scales and within a comparative framework comprised of two commensal and two non-commensal lineages. One lineage of each type has had an extended association with humans, and the others have had more recent association. This project will 1) use species distribution modeling to assess the relative roles of climate variation and post-Neolithic human landscape modification in shaping demographic history, particularly range expansions and population divergence; 2) use high-resolution whole-genome sequence data to determine whether commensal behavior arose via phenotypic plasticity, evolved independently among lineages, or spread via introgression from a single origin; and 3) evaluate evidence for contemporary human-mediated hybridization and erosion of reproductive barriers between previously allopatric groups.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.