Collaborative Research: Predicting novel interactions between parasitic botflies and high-elevation deer mice under climate change

全球环境正在迅速变化，使物种面临新的环境挑战。为了了解气候变化对有机体的影响，科学家必须调查个体如何应对新的环境挑战，以及这些反应如何改变物种的分布和进化。高海拔山地生态系统(海拔约2500米)特别容易受到气候变化的影响，许多高海拔物种的分布发生了变化，或者已经完全灭绝。该项目将测试肉质大型寄生虫Cuterebra botfys是否会在气候变暖的情况下扩展到更高的海拔，以及这种扩张是否会对其宿主之一北美鹿鼠(Permyscus Manulatus)的高海拔种群造成负面影响，目前还没有遇到肉蝇。这个项目的数据将被用来为中学生开发新的课程，专注于分析和解释真实数据，以及一系列YouTube视频，旨在增加对气候变化对生物多样性的影响的理解。高海拔物种的脆弱性可能是因为它们的范围通常很窄，以及这些环境固有的无情的强大非生物选择压力，从而减少了种群的遗传和表型变异。在接近海平面的海拔地区，感染肉蝇幼虫对鹿鼠的生理有显著影响，但对性能或存活率没有影响。然而，在中等海拔(海拔约2000米)，肉蝇感染严重限制了生理功能、越冬存活和小鼠执行生态相关任务的能力。该项目将结合沿陡峭的海拔梯度(~海平面到4,000米ASL)的野外生理学与人口统计学建模、实验操作和基因组重新测序，以确定在广阔的海拔范围内，僵尸苍蝇和它们的鹿鼠宿主之间持续的和新颖的相互作用的后果。这些数据将被用来预测在气候变化下，肉蝇感染对鹿鼠种群的未来人口统计学后果。该项目将在气候变化导致的新的相互作用中提供前所未有的宿主-寄生虫动态探索。该奖项反映了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。

Environments around the globe are rapidly changing, exposing species to new environmental challenges. To understand the effects that shifting climates have on organisms, scientists must investigate how individuals respond to new environmental challenges, and how those responses alter species’ distributions and their evolution. High-elevation, montane ecosystems (~2,500 meters above sea level) are especially vulnerable to climate change, and numerous high-elevation species have experienced changes in their distributions or have gone extinct altogether. This project will test whether a flesh macroparasite, Cuterebra botflies, will expand into higher elevations with a warming climate, and whether this expansion will negatively impact high-elevation populations of one of its hosts, the North American deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) that currently do not encounter botflies. Data from this project will be used to develop new curricula for middle school students focused on analyzing and interpreting real data, as well as a series of YouTube videos aimed to increase understanding of the effects of climate change on biodiversity.The vulnerability of high-elevation species may result from their generally narrow ranges and the unrelentingly strong abiotic selection pressures inherent to these environments, which reduces a population’s genetic and phenotypic variation. At elevations near sea-level, infections with botfly larvae have pronounced influences on deer mouse physiology, but not on performance or survival. At moderate elevations however (~2,000 meters above sea level), however, botfly infections severely limit physiological function, over-winter survival and the ability of mice to perform ecologically relevant tasks. This project will combine field physiology along a steep elevational gradient (~sea level to 4,000 m asl) with demographic modeling, experimental manipulations, and genome re-sequencing to determine the consequences of ongoing and novel interactions between botflies and their deer mouse hosts across their broad elevational range. The data will be used predict future demographic consequences of botfly infection on deer mouse populations under climate change. The project will provide an unprecedented exploration of host-parasite dynamics in the face of novel interactions as a result of climate change.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.