The role of landscape structure in shaping genetic variation in natural populations

生物多样性，即个体、物种和生态群落之间多样性的丰富程度，是维持自然生态系统过程和服务的关键。遗传多样性，即一个物种内个体之间的可遗传变异，是生物多样性的最基本层面，对一个物种的生存和面对环境变化的进化能力至关重要。自然种群的遗传多样性受到自然栖息地丧失和破碎化的威胁，这是由人类引起的景观变化造成的，如定居点、工业和农业的扩张。随着栖息地变得越来越小，越来越孤立，居住在其中的动植物种群很容易失去遗传多样性。因此，有必要了解景观变化，特别是栖息地的丧失和破碎化如何影响种群的遗传。我的研究项目集中在这个问题上，更广泛地说，是关于自然种群的遗传变异是如何被周围景观的特征所塑造的。我的实验室将研究在多大程度上栖息地在景观中的空间安排，而不是简单的栖息地数量，在决定一个物种的遗传变异方面是重要的。这是一个长期存在的问题，很难解决，但通过使用生活在紫色猪笼草中的昆虫，我们开发了一个独特的，自然的研究系统，使我们能够做到这一点。我们还将研究参与新陈代谢的重要基因的变异，建立一个框架来解决适应性或功能重要的遗传变异在现实景观中是如何维持的。我们的工作可以指导景观管理，以保护生物多样性，并提高我们对栖息地丧失和破碎化如何影响种群适应其他环境压力（如气候变化或外来物种入侵）的能力的理解。

Biological diversity, the richness of variation among individuals, species, and ecological communities, is key to the maintenance of natural ecosystem processes and services. Genetic diversity, the heritable variation among individuals within a species, is the most fundamental level of biological diversity and is important for a species' survival and ability to evolve in the face of environmental change. Genetic diversity in natural populations is threatened by the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, resulting from human-induced changes to landscapes such as the expansion of settlements, industry, and agriculture. As habitats become smaller and more isolated, the populations of plants and animals that occupy them are prone to lose genetic diversity. It is thus essential to understand how landscape alteration, particularly loss and fragmentation of habitats, affects the genetics of populations. My research program focuses on this problem, and more generally on how genetic variation in natural populations is shaped by characteristics of the surrounding landscape. My lab will examine to what extent the spatial arrangement of habitat in the landscape, as opposed to simply the amount of habitat available, is important in determining genetic variation in a species. This is a long-standing question that is very difficult to address, but using insects that live within the purple pitcher plant, we have developed a unique, natural study system that allows us to do so. We will also examine variation at important genes that are involved in metabolism, building a framework for addressing how adaptive, or functionally important, genetic variation is maintained in real landscapes. Our work can guide the management of landscapes to preserve biological diversity, and improves our understanding of how loss and fragmentation of habitats may affect the ability of populations to adapt to other environmental stresses, such as climate change or invasion by exotic species.