Dimensions: Collaborative Research: Can Evolutionary History Predict How Changes in Biodiversity Impact the Productivity of Ecosystems?

维度：合作研究：进化史能否预测生物多样性的变化如何影响生态系统的生产力？

• 批准号: 1046121
• 负责人: Bradley Cardinale
• 金额: $ 69.05万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-10-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1046121&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dimensions; Collaborative; Research; Evolutionary; History

Scientists seek to understand how the current accelerating loss of biodiversity will affect the productivity and sustainability of Earth's ecosystems. The goal of this project is to predict which species extinctions will have the greatest effect on primary production, the fundamentally important process of photosynthetic capture of biomass. This project tests the novel hypothesis that evolution leads to genetic divergence and niche differences among species. In turn, niche differences lead to a 'division of labor' that determines how efficiently biological communities capture the limited resources needed to produce new biomass. To test this hypothesis, the project bridges the fields of ecology, phylogenetics, and genomics to examine how one of the most widespread and ecologically important groups of algae impacts the productivity of lakes throughout North America. The goals are to 1) Create a new molecular phylogeny that can be used to test whether assemblages of freshwater algae are more genetically diverse than expected by chance. 2) Experimentally manipulate the evolutionary and genetic divergence of species to assess how these aspects of biodiversity control niche differences and primary production. 3) Conduct analyses of gene expression data to identify the genetic basis of niche differences among species, and relate these to rates of primary production by phytoplankton communities.The project will train a variety of students from high school interns to postdoctoral researchers in multidisciplinary work blending genomics, phylogenetics, and ecology. Two K-12 exercises will broaden students' appreciation for biological diversity in important freshwater habitats. The information from the project will provide important information for the management of freshwater resources.

科学家试图了解当前的生物多样性丧失将如何影响地球生态系统的生产力和可持续性。该项目的目的是预测哪些物种灭绝将对初级生产产生最大的影响，这是对生物量的光合捕获的根本重要过程。该项目检验了一个新的假设，即进化会导致物种之间的遗传差异和利基差异。 反过来，利基差异导致了“劳动分工”，该差异决定了如何有效地捕获生产新生物量所需的有限资源。为了检验这一假设，该项目桥接了生态学，系统发育学和基因组学领域，以研究最广泛和最重要的藻类群体之一如何影响整个北美湖泊的生产力。 目标是1）创建一种新的分子系统发育，可用于测试淡水藻类的组合是否比偶然预期的遗传多样化。 2）通过实验操纵物种的进化和遗传差异，以评估生物多样性的这些方面如何控制利基差异和初级生产。 3）对基因表达数据进行分析，以确定物种之间利基差异的遗传基础，并将这些分析与浮游植物群落的初级生产率有关。该项目将培训从高中实习生到多学科工作的多学科研究人员的各种学生，融合了多学科工作，将基因组学，系统生殖学和生态学培训。两次K-12练习将扩大学生对重要淡水栖息地的生物多样性的欣赏。该项目的信息将为淡水资源的管理提供重要信息。