Resolving the integrated sources of ecological opportunity and diversification across a pollinator specialization gradient

生物多样性通过自然服务来维持生态系统和人类生命(例如，害虫控制的昆虫多样性、粮食生产的传粉者多样性)。尽管生物多样性很重要，但我们对生物多样性是如何产生和消失的理解仍然过于简单化。例如，我们知道物种相互作用、气候变化和地质事件可以改变新物种进化或灭绝的速度。我们还知道，这些物种形成和灭绝的驱动因素可能以一种综合的方式发挥作用，尽管由于这样做的技术难度，这种相互作用很少被量化。该项目将基因组和生态数据与计算工具开发相结合，以了解驱动因素如何相互作用影响生物多样性。通过这项工作获得的知识对于在不断变化的世界中管理生物多样性至关重要。除了培训下一代科学家外，该项目还与4-H夏令营(每年约2,500名露营者)合作，向公众传授生物多样性原理，并提高公众对科学的欣赏。重要的是，该项目的结果将有助于做出明智的决策，以减少生物多样性的损失，维持人类和自然系统的福祉。谱系多样化驱动因素研究的主要限制之一是难以量化不同生态机会来源的共同贡献。虽然许多研究已经研究了如何通过生物地理、非生物和生物环境的变化来创造生态机会，但生态机会往往来自各种来源的相互作用(例如，扩散到一个新的环境导致新的生物相互作用、非生物生态位和生态释放)。应用综合方法，该项目开发了量化不同生态机会来源和多样化驱动因素的贡献和相互作用的方法。具体地说，该项目开发和应用完全参数化、图形化和无似然性的方法来量化潜在的多样化驱动因素在油料作物属Calceolaria及其油蜂传粉者Centris属和Chalefus属中的联合作用。这组特殊的植物及其专门的传粉者的特征是反复跨越生物、非生物和生物地理梯度的过渡，预计这些梯度相互作用，以推动多样化。他们的工作展示了如何在宏观进化框架中量化不同驱动因素的相互作用，为提高我们回答这些核心但复杂的生态进化问题的能力奠定了基础。这一奖项反映了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。

Biodiversity sustains ecosystems and human-life through natural services (e.g., insect diversity for pest control, pollinator diversity for food production). Despite its importance, our understanding of how biodiversity is generated and lost is still simplistic. For instance, we know that species interactions, changes in climate, and geologic events can change the rates at which new species evolve or go extinct. We also know that these drivers of speciation and extinction likely act in a combined manner, although that interaction has been rarely quantified due to the technical difficulty of doing so. This project combines genomic and ecological data with computational tool-development to understand how drivers interact to affect biodiversity. The knowledge acquired through this work is critical to managing biodiversity in a changing world. In addition to training the next generation of scientists, this project collaborates with 4-H summer camps (~2,500 campers/year) to teach principles of biodiversity to the general public and increase public appreciation of science. Importantly, the results of this project will assist with informed decision making to mitigate biodiversity loss and sustain human and natural system well-being.One of the major limitations in the study of drivers of lineage diversification is the difficulty in quantifying the joint contributions of different sources of ecological opportunity. Although many studies have investigated how ecological opportunity can be created by changes in biogeographic, abiotic, and biotic environments, ecological opportunity often results from the interaction of various sources (e.g., dispersal to a new environment resulting in novel biotic interactions, abiotic niches and ecological release). Applying an integrated approach, this project develops methods to quantify the contributions and interactions of different sources of ecological opportunity and drivers of diversification. Specifically, the project develops and applies fully-parameterized, graphical, and likelihood-free methods to quantify the joint roles of potential drivers of diversification in the oil-rewarding plant genus Calceolaria and its oil-bee pollinators of genera Centris and Chalepogenus. This speciose group of plants and its specialized pollinators are characterized by repeated transitions across biotic, abiotic, and biogeographic gradients expected to interact to drive diversification. Their work demonstrates how interactions of different drivers can be quantified in a macroevolutionary framework, setting the foundations to advancing our ability to answer these central, but complex, eco-evolutionary questions across the tree of life.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.