NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2020: Functional traits as indicators of community structure and function

该行动资助了NSF 2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，即利用生物标本进行研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式使用生物收藏品。大型哺乳动物群落正以惊人的速度受到气候变化和栖息地丧失的影响。这项研究将探讨哺乳动物群落的物理特征，如牙齿和骨骼元素，如何与它们被发现的特定环境相关。研究员将利用化石记录中保存的特征，探索哺乳动物群落如何自然组合，以及这些群落如何在长时间内对环境变化和人类活动做出反应。这项研究将有助于保护生物多样性，提供一个更完整的了解生态系统，以及它们如何随着时间和环境的变化。在进行这项研究的同时，研究员将接受从博物馆标本中收集三维数据的新方法，用于教学定量数据分析的循证技术以及向公众传播科学的创新策略的培训。该研究员将根据研究结果编写当地动物及其随时间变化的信息手册，并将与美国40个生物野外站合作，将这些手册用于其外展规划。研究目标将利用功能性状-环境关系将性状模式与哺乳动物群落组装联系起来，并描述生态和进化过程的相关影响。首先，研究员将通过评估与环境有关的特征和功能组的反应滞后来描述化石记录中的特征-环境模式。每个滞后的地理、时间、环境和动物组成部分将用于确定主要和重要的基础过程的模式，如物种形成、灭绝和范围转移。其次，研究员将调查现代特征环境模式如何受到人为压力的影响，例如土地使用和非本地物种，包括国内和入侵物种。纳入土地使用模式和替换或增加新的，非本地社区成员将被用来改善生物多样性变化的预测特性-环境模型。通过导师的培训，该研究员将整合两个研究目标和三个培训目标，以制作非正式的、基于地点的学习材料，其中包括这项研究的古生物学成果。该研究员将通过指导两名将作为学生研究员参与该项目的本科生获得指导经验。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2020, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will use biological collections in innovative ways. Large mammal communities are being affected by climate change and habitat loss at a startling rate. This research will investigate how physical traits, such as teeth and skeletal elements, within mammalian communities are related to the specific environments where they are found. Using traits preserved in the fossil record, the fellow will explore how communities of mammals are naturally assembled and how those communities respond to environmental changes and human activities over long time scales. This research will contribute to conservation of biodiversity by providing a more complete understanding of ecosystems and how they change through time and across environments. While conducting this research, the fellow will be trained in novel methods of three-dimensional data collection from museum specimens, evidence-based techniques for teaching quantitative data analysis, and innovative strategies for communicating science to a public audience. The fellow will develop informational manuals local animals and how these change through time based on research results and will collaborate with 40 US biological field stations to use the manuals into their outreach programming.Research objectives will use functional trait-environment relationships to connect trait patterns with mammalian community assembly and describe the related effects of ecological and evolutionary processes. First, the fellow will characterize trait-environment patterns in the fossil record by evaluating response lags in traits and functional groups in relation to the environment. Geographic, temporal, environmental, and faunal components of each lag will be used to identify patterns of primary and significant underpinning processes, such as speciation, extinction, and range shift. Second, the fellow will investigate how modern trait-environment patterns are affected by anthropogenic pressures, such as land use and non-native species including domestic and invasive species. Inclusion of land use patterns and replacement by or addition of new, non-native community members will be used to improve predictive trait-environment models of biodiversity change. With training from mentors, the fellow will integrate two research objectives and three training objectives to produce informal, place-based learning materials that incorporate the paleobiological results from this research. The fellow will gain mentoring experience by supervising two undergraduates who will participate in this project as student 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.