CAREER: Measuring the thermal tolerances of individuals, populations, and species and predicting plant species' responses to climate change in the tropical Andes

职业：测量热带安第斯山脉个体、种群和物种的热耐受性并预测植物物种对气候变化的反应

• 批准号: 1743249
• 负责人: Kenneth Feeley
• 金额: $ 47.04万
• 依托单位: University of Miami
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-02-01 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1743249&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Measuring; thermal; tolerances; individuals

One of the most basic questions in ecology is: Where does each species occur? And following on that: What environmental factors determine where a particular species occurs? Despite the seeming simplicity of these questions, they remain unanswered for the vast majority of species. This lack of knowledge is especially troubling given the implications for understanding how species will respond to climate change through either shifts in where they occur or through physiological adaptations. This study will address these and other questions through a series of experimental and observational studies conducted in the Andean mountains of Peru, where many species are unusually vulnerable to small changes in temperature and rainfall. More specifically, the project will measure altitudinal ranges and thermal tolerances of nearly two dozen cloud forest tree species. The investigators will also determine the extent to which small populations of each species are tightly adapted to particular elevations ("local adaptation") and each species' ability to change its thermal tolerance ("plasticity"). Data will be incorporated into models designed to predict where species currently occur and where they might start to occur as climates change. This project is one of the first to systematically test several key assumptions critical to the assessment how climate change will impact where species are able to live. It will be the first-ever study to simultaneously measure the thermal tolerances of individuals, populations, and species of tropical trees. The results will greatly expand our understanding of the complex factors determining where species occur, and will strengthen our ability to predict species responses to future climate change.The research will be integrated with an extensive set of educational, training, and outreach programs in collaboration with established domestic and international environmental education organizations. Outreach programs are designed to help increase the participation of US minorities and international students in the biological sciences, and to broaden public awareness of the potential impacts of climate change on tropical forests around the world.

生态学中最基本的问题之一是：每个物种在哪里发生？然后在此之后：哪些环境因素决定了特定物种发生的位置？ 尽管这些问题似乎很简单，但它们仍未得到绝大多数物种的反应。由于了解物种将通过发生的位置或生理适应的变化，这种缺乏知识尤其令人不安，这尤其令人不安。 这项研究将通过在秘鲁的安第斯山脉进行的一系列实验和观察性研究来解决这些问题和其他问题，在秘鲁的安第斯山脉中，许多物种在温度和降雨中都非常容易受到小小的变化。 更具体地说，该项目将测量近二十二个云森林树种的高度范围和热公差。研究人员还将确定每个物种的少量种群紧密地适应特定的海拔（“局部适应”），以及每个物种改变其热耐受性的能力（“可塑性”）。数据将被纳入旨在预测当前物种发生的位置以及随着气候变化而开始发生的模型。 该项目是最早系统地测试几个关键假设的项目之一，这对于评估气候变化将如何影响物种居住的地方至关重要。这将是有史以来第一项同时测量热带树木和种群的热耐受性的研究。结果将大大扩展我们对确定物种发生位置的复杂因素的理解，并将加强我们预测物种对未来气候变化的反应的能力。该研究将与一系列与既定的国内和国际环境教育组织合作的广泛教育，培训和外展计划集成。外展计划旨在帮助增加美国少数民族和国际学生在生物科学中的参与，并扩大公众对气候变化对世界各地热带森林的潜在影响的认识。