Testing the ecophylogenetic hypothesis with species and spaces along ecological gradients

提案摘要******大多数陆生动物是节肢动物，其中大多数是昆虫，其中大多数是科学未知的。近年来，我们了解到许多未命名的昆虫物种在物理上比想象的更小，更受区域限制和/或宿主特异性。诸如此类的种间和种内区域专门化（特别是那些随海拔和人为干扰共同变化的区域专门化）对于我们理解生物多样性的进化和维持至关重要。生物多样性是进化史与生态戏剧的结合体，二者结合起来选择生态“戏剧”中的“演员”。然而，生物多样性不仅仅是物种丰富度。生物多样性是进化和生态过程相互作用的复杂产物，因此系统发生学是帮助理解群落聚集和维持的有用工具。******在我的研究项目中，我们使用了多个节肢动物类群（鞘翅目、蛛目、双翅目、寄生性膜翅目、等足目和鞘翅目），但总是首先考虑的是蚂蚁（蚁科）。这项工作是基于Conservación瓜纳卡斯特地区（ACG），那里被认为居住着全球2.6%的生物多样性。我们在这个国家公园的专业知识允许我们在高度多样化的新热带节肢动物中测试生态系统发育假说。节肢动物对温度和湿度的变化很敏感，这一点在新热带地区尤为突出，许多物种可能已经生活在接近它们的温度极限的地方，而且大多数都没有被命名。科学名称提供了对物种的系统理解和预测物种功能元素的框架，因此，缺乏科学名称严重阻碍了预测性和过程导向的生物多样性科学的开展。该DG描述了2名博士和3名硕士学生的项目。我们将记录生活在这一高度多样化地区的物种，DNA条形码，测量系统发育多样性和计算功能多样性，包括生态学数据、生活史特征和形态变量的形态补体，这些数据与物种在特定的非生物条件下的生存有关。我们的工作将创建和综合检验“生态系统假说”所需的生物多样性数据，这一假说此前因没有在足够数量的分类群和情况下进行评估而受到批评。这项工作将使我们更好地了解这些群落如何应对森林和变暖的云雾林所对应的更热、更干燥的条件。******在我的实验室小组中，我们测量昆虫多样性来回答群落是如何沿着海拔和干扰的梯度聚集的问题。通过结合这种多样性的系统发育和功能测量，我们将能够更好地回答物种如何跟踪变化的非生物条件

SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL ******Most terrestrial animals are arthropods, most of these are insects and most of these are unknown to science. In recent years we have learned that many of the unnamed insect species are physically smaller and more regionally-restricted and/or host-specific than had been imagined. Inter- and intra-specific regional specialisations such as these (in particular those that co-vary with elevation and anthropogenic disturbance) are critical to our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of that biodiversity. Biodiversity is a combination of the evolutionary history and ecological dramas that combine to select the “actors” in the ecological “theater”. However, biodiversity is more than species richness. Biodiversity is a complex product of the interaction of evolutionary and ecological processes and so phylogenies are a useful tool to help understand the assembly and maintenance of communities. ******In my research program, we utilise multiple arthropod taxa (Collembola, Araneae, Diptera, parasitoid Hymenoptera, Isopoda and Coleoptera), but always amongst the first to be considered are the ants (Formicidae). The work is based in the Area de Conservación Guanacaste (ACG) where than 2.6 % of global diversity is thought to reside. Our expertise within this national park permits us to test the assumptions of ecophylogenetic hypotheses in hyperdiverse Neotropical arthropods. Arthropods are sensitive to changes in temperature and moisture and this is accentuated in the Neotropics where many species may already live close to their thermal limits, and most are not named. Scientific names provide a systematic understanding of a species and a framework to predict the functional elements of that species Thus, lacking scientific names critically impedes conducting predictive and process-oriented biodiversity science. This DG describes projects for 2 PhD and 3 MSc students. We will document the species that live in this hyperdiverse area, DNA barcode and measure the phylogenetic diversity and calculate functional diversity by including data on ecology, life history traits and morphology complement of morphological variables linked to species survival in particular abiotic conditions. Our work will create and synthesise the biodiversity data required to test the “ecophylogenetics hypothesis” which has previously been criticised for not being evaluated on a sufficient number of taxa nor situations. This work will allow us to better understand how these communities respond to hotter and drier conditions corresponding to forestry and warming cloud forests.******In my lab group, we measure insect diversity to answer the question of how communities are assembled along gradients of elevation and disturbance. By incorporating both phylogenetic and functional measures of that diversity we will be better able to answer how species track changing abiotic conditions.**