DISSERTATION RESEARCH: An empirical test of species range limit evolution using the world's largest amphibian invasion

论文研究：利用世界上最大的两栖动物入侵对物种范围限制进化进行实证检验

• 批准号: 1407335
• 负责人: Andrew Storfer
• 金额: $ 1.96万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-06-01 至 2015-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1407335&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; empirical; test; species

Invasive species are one of the key drivers behind the global loss of biodiversity. The cane toad (Rhinella marina) is on the 100 World's Worst Invasive Alien Species list maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (www.issg.org). This large, Neotropical toad has invaded over 40 countries worldwide and has detrimentally impacted native ecosystems in many ways. The largest, and arguably most damaging, cane toad invasion site is in Australia. There, cane toads have imperiled numerous native wildlife species through their effects as novel toxic prey items, predators of invertebrates and small vertebrates, and competitors with native frogs. This study will reveal which environmental factors and evolutionary processes are contributing to the cane toad's extraordinarily successful invasion of Australia. This knowledge will help land managers implement control measures to protect native species from cane toads, as well as potentially limit the overall extent of the invasion. Moreover, species' invasions also provide unique, albeit unfortunate, natural experiments for elucidating the processes that control species' geographic range limits. Understanding the mechanisms underlying species' range limits is a longstanding goal in the fields of ecology and evolution. It has become urgent in light of the fact that global climate change may necessitate geographic range shifts for many of the world?s species. Cane toads are ideally-suited to investigate species' range limits because have an extraordinarily well-documented history of invasion since their deliberate introduction to Australia in 1935. In turn, this allows predictive models of their future invasion based on landscape-dispersal relationships to be validated with historical data from the actual invasion. Cane toads also have both stable and actively-expanding range edges across Australia, providing a unique opportunity to compare range limits versus expansion in geographically-replicated areas. The cane toad's invasion of Australia will be investigated using a combination of landscape genetic and genomic analyses with controlled laboratory rearing experiments. Cane toad dispersal patterns will be correlated with key landscape factors to determine which habitats restrict and/or enhance cane toad movement throughout Australia. A genomic study will also reveal putatively adaptive regions of the genome that may be contributing to the cane toad's invasion success. In combination with laboratory rearing experiments, this work will provide genotypic and phenotypic tests of the role of adaptation in a major geographic range expansion. Overall this work will provide a rare empirical test of the leading ecological and evolutionary theories for species' range limits, in addition to useful information to help control a notorious worldwide invader.

入侵物种是全球生物多样性丧失背后的关键驱动力之一。甘蔗蟾蜍（Rhinella Marina）位于国际自然保护联盟（www.issg.org）维护的100个世界上最严重的侵入性外星物种清单上。这种大型新热带蟾蜍已入侵了全球40多个国家，并在许多方面对本地生态系统产生了不利影响。甘蔗蟾蜍入侵地点是澳大利亚，最大，最大的甘蔗蟾蜍入侵地点。 在那里，甘蔗蟾蜍通过其作为新颖的有毒猎物，无脊椎动物和小脊椎动物的捕食者以及竞争对手的本地青蛙的捕食者而造成了许多本地野生动植物物种。 这项研究将揭示哪些环境因素和进化过程有助于甘蔗蟾蜍非常成功地入侵澳大利亚。这些知识将帮助土地管理者实施控制措施，以保护本地物种免受甘蔗蟾蜍的影响，并可能限制入侵的整体范围。 此外，物种的入侵还提供了独特的，尽管是不幸的自然实验，以阐明控制物种地理范围限制的过程。了解物种范围限制的机制是生态和进化领域的长期目标。鉴于全球气候变化可能需要对世界许多物种的地理范围变化这一事实，这已经变得紧迫。甘蔗蟾蜍非常适合研究物种的范围限制，因为自1935年故意向澳大利亚介绍澳大利亚以来，具有备受纪录的入侵历史。反过来，这允许预测基于景观散布关系的未来入侵的预测模型，可以通过实际入侵的历史数据来验证。甘蔗蟾蜍在澳大利亚也具有稳定的膨胀范围边缘，为比较范围限制与扩展地理重复区域提供了独特的机会。 甘蔗蟾蜍对澳大利亚的入侵将通过景观遗传和基因组分析与受控实验室饲养实验的结合进行研究。甘蔗蟾蜍的分散模式将与关键景观因素相关，以确定哪些栖息地限制和/或增强整个澳大利亚的甘蔗运动。一项基因组研究还将揭示基因组的推测自适应区域，这可能导致甘蔗蟾蜍的入侵成功。 结合实验室饲养实验，这项工作将提供基因型和表型测试，以实现适应性在主要地理范围扩展中的作用。 总体而言，这项工作还将为物种范围限制的领先的生态和进化论提供罕见的经验检验，此外还有有用的信息以帮助控制臭名昭著的全球入侵者。