Collaborative Research: The impacts of mating system variation on ecological performance and evolutionary diversification in a clade of marine snails

合作研究：交配系统变异对海洋蜗牛进化枝生态表现和进化多样化的影响

• 批准号: 1459815
• 负责人: Richard Grosberg
• 金额: $ 70.33万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-01 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1459815&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; impacts; mating; system

At present, virtually nothing is known about how mating systems vary within and among individuals, populations, and species of marine organisms. Indeed, characterizing mating system variation in the sea, and its effects on fundamental ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes, now represents a challenge perhaps equal in importance to the study of population connectivity that has occupied many marine ecologists for the last three decades. Snails in the genus Nucella are important intertidal predators and provide an exceptional model system for exploring how mating systems control critical ecological and evolutionary processes and patterns. By integrating insights from population and behavioral ecology, and life-history theory, combined with genetic, experimental, and phylogenetic approaches, this project will generate novel insights into the impacts of mating system variation on the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of marine systems. This project will significantly advance our understanding of how mating system variation in marine systems influences individuals, populations, and species, with important implications for better predicting how processes such as climate change, habitat fragmentation, and harvesting will influence population dynamics, speciation, and ecosystem function. In collaboration with a number of ongoing programs this project will train numerous under-represented students, scientists, and teachers in modern ecology, genetics, and phylogenetics. In addition, the project interfaces with multiple educational programs through partnerships with the Exploratorium, NOAA's expansion of west coast marine sanctuaries and outreach programs, and science communications programs at UC Davis and UNCW. Worldwide, anthropogenic and natural processes are rapidly modifying patterns of environmental variation that affect the traits of individuals, populations, species, and communities, and that ultimately threaten both biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. These threats are often viewed in the context of (a) reductions in population size or density; (b) changes in demographic and genetic connectivity; and (c) Allee effects, where reduced local densities limit mating success. Though less-well studied - especially in marine systems - environmental perturbations can also rapidly alter the mating systems of populations. Numerous studies show that intra- and inter-specific variation in mating systems has major impacts on a broad spectrum of ecological and evolutionary processes (e.g., dispersal, population dynamics, life-history diversity, and speciation), that can profoundly influence the sustainability of marine ecosystems. The investigators' previous NSF-funded work established, for the first time in any marine organism, that the mating system strongly influences both offspring size variation and reproductive compatibilities in the predatory marine snail Nucella ostrina. This work raised several major questions regarding the ecology of marine organisms. Through field experiments, mating trials, genetic analyses, and phylogenetically explicit comparisons, the present project will comprehensively examine the fundamental roles that mating systems play in (1) generating ecologically relevant trait variation; (2) driving reproductive isolation; and (3) shaping macro-ecological patterns of life-history variation. This research will broaden our understanding of the critical role that mating systems play in the ecology and diversification of marine organisms, and provide the foundation for understanding how changes in population demographics and mating systems can influence both short term population dynamics and longer term responses to environmental change.

目前，几乎尚不了解交配系统在个人，人群和海洋生物种类之间的变化。的确，表征海洋中的交配系统变化及其对基本生态和进化模式和过程的影响，现在是一个挑战，在过去三十年中一直占领了许多海洋生态学家的人口连通性的重要性。 Nucella属中的蜗牛是重要的潮间捕食者，并提供了一个非凡的模型系统，用于探索交配系统如何控制关键的生态和进化过程和模式。通过整合人口和行为生态学的见解以及生活历史理论，再加上遗传，实验和系统发育方法，该项目将产生新的见解，以了解交配系统变化对海洋系统生态和进化动态的影响。 该项目将大大提高我们对海洋系统交配系统变化如何影响个人，人群和物种的理解，并具有重要的含义，以更好地预测诸如气候变化，栖息地分散和收获等过程如何影响人群动态，形成性和生态系统功能。该项目与许多正在进行的计划合作，将培训众多代表性的学生，科学家和现代生态学，遗传学和系统发育学的教师。此外，该项目通过与Exploratorium的合作关系，NOAA扩展西海岸海洋保护区和外展计划以及在UC Davis和UNCW的科学传播计划的合作关系与多个教育计划互动。全球，人为和自然过程正在迅速改变环境变化的模式，这些模式影响了个人，人群，物种和社区的特征，并最终威胁着生物多样性和生态系统功能。这些威胁通常在（a）降低人口规模或密度的背景下被视为； （b）人口统计学和遗传连通性的变化； （c）Allee效应，局部密度降低限制了交配成功。尽管研究较少的研究 - 尤其是在海洋系统中，但环境扰动也可以迅速改变人群的交配系统。大量研究表明，交配系统的内部和特异性变化对广泛的生态和进化过程（例如，分散，种群动态，生活历史多样性和形成性）产生了重大影响，从而深远影响了海洋生态系统的可持续性。研究人员先前由NSF资助的工作在任何海洋生物体中首次建立，即交配系统强烈影响掠食性海洋蜗牛核ostrina的后代大小变化和生殖兼容性。这项工作提出了有关海洋生物生态学的几个主要问题。通过现场实验，交配试验，遗传分析和系统发育明确的比较，本项目将全面研究配合系统在（1）产生生态相关性状变化中扮演的基本角色； （2）驱动生殖隔离； （3）塑造生命历史变化的宏观生态模式。这项研究将扩大我们对交配系统在海洋生物的生态学和多样化中发挥的关键作用的理解，并为了解人口人口统计和交配系统的变化如何影响短期种群动态和对环境变化的长期响应为基础。