OPUS: The Biotic Challenge Hypothesis, an Eco-evolutionary Mechanism for Tropical Diversity

热带生物的惊人多样性及其物种间的相互作用阻碍了对这种多样性如何产生以及物种如何共存的概括。简单的社区和生态模型的基础上的概括未能充分扩大规模，包括最丰富的物种的陆地组合，特别是在新世界热带（新热带）。生物挑战假说（英语：Biotic Challenge Hypothesis）是对新热带区食虫鸟类及其猎物的巨大多样性特征的回顾，该假说认为热带栖息地在数千万年的时间里积累了不同的物种，激烈的竞争和捕食使得许多独特和专门的适应性进化成为必要。这一过程如何增加了新性状和新物种的进化，以及热带系统的脆弱性，没有得到充分的阐述。该项目假定物种之间的相互作用，特别是捕食和资源竞争对于理解高度多样化的热带社区的演变和当前的威胁至关重要。该项目的一个关键的更广泛的影响将是探索为什么热带物种对全球变化的威胁如此敏感，因此需要更有效的保护和管理战略。其他更广泛的影响包括创建和传播一个公开的数据库，培训具有不同背景的学生，以及为各种受众制作材料。生物挑战假说整合了两个进化物种之间的相互作用，捕食者和猎物之间的共同进化军备竞赛，以及涉及数十个通常在遗传学上无关的物种的扩散竞争。这些相互作用需要喂养专业化，以发现，制服和处理猎物;和积极保守的生理。这些专业化的一个权衡（成本）是穷人的扩散能力，增加物种和物种形成率的地理分化，后者积极加强热带物种多样性。该项目将详细探讨捕食者，猎物和竞争对手之间的动态相互作用如何推动许多动物和植物组合的多样化，包括鸟类及其昆虫猎物，热带植物及其敌人，以及植物-动物互惠关系。最重要的更广泛的影响是一本书，阐述了生物挑战假说的原因和后果，特别是因为它涉及到生态专业化和传播不良的演变。这两种结果都加剧了热带物种对许多全球变化影响的敏感性，包括昆虫种群的减少。其他更广泛的影响包括培训一名本科生和一名早期研究生制作鸟类猎物数据库，书中的许多推论都是基于此;并将发现和概念传播给广大受众。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The staggering diversity of tropical organisms and their species interactions have inhibited generalizations about how this diversity arose and how species coexist. Generalizations based on simple communities and ecological models fail to scale-up adequately to encompass the most species-rich terrestrial assemblages, especially those in the New World tropics (Neotropics). Review of the vast diversity of traits among neotropical insect-feeding birds and their prey inspired the Biotic Challenge Hypothesis, which asserts that as tropical habitats accumulated diverse species over tens of millions of years, intense competition and predation necessitated the evolution of many unique and specialized adaptations. How this process might have increased the evolution of new traits and species, and also the fragility of tropical systems, is inadequately articulated. This project posits that interactions among species, especially predation and competition for resources are essential to understanding the evolution of hyper-diverse tropical communities and current threats. A key broader impact of this project will be to explore why tropical species are so sensitive to global change threats and thus require more effective conservation and management strategies. Other broader impacts include the creation and dissemination of a publicly available database, training students with diverse backgrounds, and production of materials for a range of audiences. The Biotic Challenge Hypothesis integrates two evolutionary species interactions, coevolutionary arms races between predators and their prey, and diffuse competition involving dozens of often phylogenetically unrelated species. These interactions necessitated feeding specializations to find, subdue, and process prey; and energetically conservative physiologies. A tradeoff (cost) of these specializations is poor dispersal ability, augmenting both geographic differentiation within species and speciation rate, the latter positively reinforcing tropical species diversity. This project will explore in detail how the dynamic interactions among predators, prey, and competitors has driven diversification in many animal and plant assemblages, including birds and their insect prey, tropical plants and their enemies, and plant-animal mutualisms. The most important broader impact is a book that elaborates the causes and consequences of the Biotic Challenge Hypothesis, especially as it relates to the evolution of ecological specialization and poor dispersal. Both of these outcomes exacerbate the sensitivity of tropical species to many global change impacts including declining insect populations. Other broader impacts include training an undergraduate and an early graduate student to produce a database of avian prey data, on which many inferences in the book are based; and disseminating the findings and concepts to broad audiences.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.