NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Identifying high-risk bioregions and predicting the impact of climate change on the distribution of genetic diversity

该行动资助2021财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则的综合研究。该奖学金支持将以创新方式对生活规则领域作出贡献的研究员的研究和培训。预测生物多样性在未来如何因自然和人类影响而变化是生态学和进化生物学的主要焦点。在基因、物种和形态等多个层面上，影响多样性地理分布的一个重要因素是气候。该提案将研究人口如何对过去的气候变化做出反应，以及这些反应如何影响未来的气候变化反应。这项研究将生成未来遗传多样性的地图，以确定气候变化可能对物种多样性产生重大影响的潜在区域。了解种内遗传多样性的空间分布和气候避难在进化和生态过程中的作用是重要的，因为它可能决定它们在未来气候变化面前的持久性。确定北美分类群种内多样性的分布如何直接受到气候和景观变化的影响，可以阐明物种对其他气候事件的反应的大尺度模式，或者更一般地说，对阻碍或限制基因流动的障碍的反应模式。本研究将研究四种小型哺乳动物的种群如何对过去的气候变化做出反应，以及四种小型哺乳动物的历史分布和过去的气候避难所将如何影响未来的气候变化反应。本研究将利用跨学科的方法-三种不同的数据类型和/或工具（下一代测序；地理信息系统；生物信息学）-来了解历史事件如何在北美广泛分布的物种中形成遗传多样性的当前分布以及对未来遗传多样性的影响。为了扩大参与，研究员将从代表性不足的群体中招募五名高中生，以帮助促进研究。奖学金获得者将指导他们完成高中教育和大学申请过程。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 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Forecasting how biodiversity will change in the future due to natural and human impacts is a primary focus of both ecology and evolutionary biology. One factor important to the geographic distribution of diversity at multiple levels - genes, species, and morphology - is climate. This proposal will study how populations have responded to past climate change, and how these responses could influence future climate change responses. This research will generate maps of future genetic diversity to identify potential areas where climate change could have a significant impact on species diversity. Understanding the spatial distributions of intraspecific genetic diversity and the role of climate refugia in evolutionary and ecological processes is important because it likely determines their potential for persistence in the face of future climate change. Determining how the distribution of intraspecific diversity of North American taxa was directly influenced by climate and landscape changes may illuminate broad-scale patterns of species’ responses to other climatic events, or more generally, to barriers impeding or constraining gene flow. This research will study how populations have responded to past climate change and how the historical distributions and past areas of climate refugia for four small mammals will influence future climate change responses. This study will utilize an interdisciplinary approach – three different data types and/or tools (next generation sequencing; GIS; bioinformatics) – to understand how historical events have shaped the current distribution of genetic diversity within a widespread species in North America and the impacts on future genetic diversity. To broaden participation, the Fellow will recruit five High School students from underrepresented groups to help facilitate the research. The Fellow will mentor them through their high school education and the college application process.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.