NSF PRFB FY 2023: Genetic, Physiological, and Environmental Drivers of Plant-Pollinator Niche Dynamics Across Scales of Biological Organization

这项行动资助了2023财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，综合研究调查了基因组，环境和表型之间的生命管理相互作用的规则。这个项目代表了一个检查传粉者觅食模式使用各种各样的生物技术。研究员将利用自然界中单个蜜蜂收集的花粉来了解这些蜜蜂在自然觅食过程中访问的花朵。通过揭示环境和生物因素如何影响传粉者觅食行为的变化，该项目将提高科学家预测环境变化如何影响传粉者生物多样性和传粉行为的能力。此外，该研究员将努力改善不同身份和背景的科学家进行实地研究的机会。她将致力于为专业环境中的研究人员实施野外安全标准，并建立社区科学努力，将非专业科学爱好者纳入令人兴奋的本地传粉者世界。该项目将应用一种新兴的分子工具-花粉DNA元条形码-来测量单个传粉者沿着自然温度和地理梯度的生态位宽度和生态位周转的变化。除了研究环境变化，该研究员将测试这些生态位特征的表型（传粉者体型）和基因型（微卫星标记）驱动因素，特别关注熊蜂作为传粉者分子生态学的模型系统。有了这些数据，她将研究个人层面的生态位动态是否可以用来提高模拟物种损失的社区层面模式的模型的预测能力。在网络分解模型中包含个体水平的生态位动态将是随机共灭绝模型的一个新的扩展，它有可能揭示互利网络结构中的明显矛盾，其中经常观察到的相互作用模式（例如，嵌套）不遵循像竞争排斥理论的期望。除了扩大她的分子和计算技能，该研究员旨在通过开发研讨会和资源来提高现场工作的可访问性和安全性，以便在所有职业阶段的研究人员中开始有关现场安全的对话。她还计划在德克萨斯州奥斯汀的瓢虫约翰逊野花中心建立一个传粉者监测项目，以吸引社区成员并通过可访问的科学支持传粉者保护。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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. This project represents an examination of pollinator foraging patterns using a wide variety of biological techniques. The fellow will utilize the pollen collected by individual bees in nature to understand of the flowers visited by these bees during the course of the bee’s natural foraging. By uncovering how environmental and biological factors influence variation in pollinator foraging behavior, this project will improve scientists’ ability to predict how environmental changes may influence pollinator biodiversity and pollination behaviors. Additionally, the fellow will engage in efforts to improve the accessibility of field-based research to scientists of diverse identities and backgrounds. She will work to implement field safety standards for researchers in professional settings and establish community science efforts to include non-professional science enthusiasts in the exciting world of native pollinators.This project will apply an emerging molecular tool ¬– pollen DNA metabarcoding – to measure variation in niche breadth and niche turnover among individual pollinators along a natural temperature and geographic gradient. In addition to examining environmental variation, the fellow will test for phenotypic (pollinator body size) and genotypic (microsatellite markers) drivers of these niche characteristics, focusing specifically on bumble bees as a model system for pollinator molecular ecology. With this data, she will examine whether individual-level niche dynamics can be used to improve the predictive ability of models simulating community-level patterns of species loss. The inclusion of individual-level niche dynamics in network disassembly models will be a novel extension of stochastic coextinction modeling that has the potential to shed light on apparent contradictions in the structure of mutualistic networks whereby frequently observed patterns of interactions (e.g., nestedness) do not follow the expectations of theories like competitive exclusion. In addition to expanding her molecular and computational skills, the fellow aims to improve accessibility and safety in field work by developing workshops and resources to start conversations about field safety among researchers at all career stages. She also plans to establish a pollinator monitoring program at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, TX to engage community members and support pollinator conservation through accessible science.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.