Behavior and the Evolution of Species Ranges

解释物种为什么会出现在它们出现的地方是生物学中的一个基本问题，对保护有重要意义。 物种的分布范围不是固定的：有些物种能够扩大它们的分布范围，并在新的栖息地取得成功。为什么物种的范围有时会扩大，以及什么因素推动了这些扩张仍然知之甚少。这项研究将确定物种之间的行为和繁殖的综合效应-杂交-如何使一个物种通过进入并迅速适应一个全新的栖息地来扩大其范围。了解这种范围的扩大对于解决入侵物种的风险以及为保护全球气候变化下的生物多样性提供保护规划和政策制定信息都很重要。此外，拟议的工作将支持PI的教育活动，其中包括指导K-12教师进行研究，并根据研究活动制定课程计划，培训K-12学生和本科生进行研究，以及在北卡罗来纳州自然科学博物馆举办公共宣传活动，美国东南部最大的自然历史博物馆。物种范围的扩大是有限的，当人口在范围边缘未能适应新的栖息地之前，他们灭绝。如果有助于扩散的行为与促进在新栖息地成功的性状有关，行为可能有助于范围扩大，并且行为促进来自当地适应的异种（通过杂交）的基因流动，使其能够快速适应新的栖息地。值得注意的是，这两个因素并不是独立的：促进扩散的行为可能直接促进杂交，或者与那些促进杂交的行为有关。这项拟议的工作将评估行为在适应草原的铲足蟾蜍物种扩展到一个完全不同的生物群落-美国西南部沙漠中的作用。通过实验室实验和自然种群的实地调查，这项工作将实现三个目标：1）评估扩散促进行为作为范围扩展到新栖息地的潜在原因; 2）确定扩散促进行为是否与介导与同源物适应性杂交的行为有关; 3）检查杂交是否有助于适应新栖息地。通过实现这些目标，拟议的工作将确定是否有助于分散到新的栖息地的行为与行为，提高在该环境中的成功。这项拟议中的工作将进一步确定介导杂交的行为是否也促进了向新栖息地的扩张和适应。总之，这项工作将提供一个关键的测试行为的假设作用，在一个物种范围的进化扩张。这个项目是联合支持之间的综合有机体系统和环境生物学的部门。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Explaining why species occur where they do is a fundamental problem in biology that has important implications for conservation. Species ranges are not fixed: some species are able to expand their ranges and succeed in new habitats. Why species ranges sometimes expand and what factors fuel those expansions remains poorly understood. This research will determine how the combined effects of behavior and breeding between species – hybridization – enable a species to expand its range by moving into and rapidly adapting to an entirely new habitat. Understanding such range expansions is important to both address the risks of invasive species and inform conservation planning and policy development for preserving biodiversity under global climate change. Moreover, the proposed work will support the PI’s educational activities, which will include mentoring K-12 teachers in research and developing lesson plans based on research activities, training K-12 students and undergraduates in research, and public outreach events at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, the largest natural history museum in the southeastern USA.Species range expansion is limited when populations at the range edge fail to adapt to novel habitats before they go extinct. Behavior might facilitate range expansion if behaviors that contribute to dispersal are linked to traits that promote success in novel habitats, and behavior promotes gene flow from locally adapted heterospecifics (via hybridization) that enables rapid adaptation to novel habitats. Notably, the two factors are not independent: behaviors that promote dispersal might directly promote hybridization or be linked to those that do. This proposed work will evaluate the role of behavior in the expansion of a grassland-adapted species of spadefoot toad into an entirely different biome––the desert southwestern USA. Using laboratory experiments and field surveys of natural populations, the work will achieve three aims: 1) evaluate dispersal-promoting behaviors as a potential cause of range expansion into a novel habitat; 2) determine whether dispersal-promoting behaviors are associated with behavior that mediates adaptive hybridization with a congener, and 3) examine if hybridization facilitates adaptation to a novel habitat. By achieving these aims, the proposed work will establish whether behaviors that contribute to dispersal into novel habitat are associated with behavior that enhances success in that environment. The proposed work will further determine if behaviors that mediate hybridization also promote expansion into, and adaptation to, novel habitats. Taken together, this work will provide a critical test of behavior’s hypothesized role in the evolutionary expansion of a species range.This project is jointly supported between the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and the Division of Environmental Biology.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.