Collaborative Research: Disease at the margins of species ranges: anther-smut on alpine species

合作研究：物种范围边缘的疾病：高山物种的花药黑粉病

• 批准号: 1115765
• 负责人: Michael Hood
• 金额: $ 34.67万
• 依托单位: Amherst College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-15 至 2017-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1115765&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Disease; margins; species

Infectious diseases can be devastating to humans and agriculture, but much less is known about how disease affects natural populations. This study will investigate the impact of a fungal disease, anther-smut, on the distribution of alpine plants, and will serve as a model for assessing how sterilizing diseases affect natural populations. The study will be carried out in an area where there is heavy disease infestation on many species, and steep environmental gradients in multiple valleys, enabling systematic studies of the factors that influence disease processes at the margins of species distributions. Genetic and ecological experiments, theoretical models, and long-term monitoring will investigate how disease affects the limits of species' ranges and how marginal populations may be foci for disease emergence through transmission of infections between host species. This research will enhance international collaborations, support local conservation efforts, and provide a field course, training and hands-on research experience in infectious disease biology for researchers and undergraduate students. Alpine regions are themselves fragile environments severely threatened by climate change and this study will establish baseline information essential for managing these plant communities in relation to disease and the rapid environmental changes that are occurring in this area.

传染病可能对人类和农业造成破坏，但对疾病如何影响自然种群的了解少得多。这项研究将研究一种真菌疾病，花药对高山植物分布的影响，并将作为评估灭菌疾病如何影响自然种群的模型。这项研究将在许多物种上存在严重疾病的区域以及多个山谷中的陡峭环境梯度上进行，从而可以对影响物种分布边缘的疾病过程的因素进行系统的研究。遗传和生态实验，理论模型和长期监测将研究疾病如何影响物种范围的极限，以及边际种群如何通过在宿主物种之间传播感染来焦点疾病出现。这项研究将增强国际合作，支持地方保护工作，并为研究人员和本科生提供现场课程，培训和动手研究经验。高山地区本身是受气候变化受到严重威胁的脆弱环境，这项研究将建立与疾病有关这些植物社区以及该地区发生的快速环境变化所必需的基线信息。