CAREER: From Genes to Assemblages: Causes and Consequences of Spatiotemporal Population Variation Across Millennia in Small Mammals

职业：从基因到组合：小型哺乳动物几千年来时空种群变化的原因和后果

基本信息

批准号：
1750597
负责人：
Jessica Blois
金额：
$ 78.24万
依托单位：
University of California - Merced
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-09-01 至 2025-08-31
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1750597&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CAREER Genes Assemblages Causes Consequences

项目摘要

Understanding how species respond to environmental change, and the long-term consequences of those responses, is important for appropriately managing biodiversity for the future. Using fossilized small mammal populations from the recent past (spanning the environmental changes of the last 21,000 years) in the western United States, this project will explore the ability of different species and communities to adapt to future environmental changes and their likelihood of extinction. The research findings will be translated into evidence-based educational activities for middle school through college students and the broader public, aiming to increase scientific literacy of the public. Species niches and community context interact to shape species responses to environmental change, and the ecological and evolutionary legacies of these responses will persist for many years into the future. To investigate the drivers and outcomes of population-level responses to long-term change, small mammal fossil deposits in the western US spanning the past 1000s of years will be excavated, and compared to previously excavated deposits from northern California. The relative influence of climate, environmental niches, and biotic interactions on shaping variability in population abundances across space and time will be quantified. Then, the influence of population-level abundance changes on compositional, functional and genetic structure and diversity through time will be determined. Finally, these patterns will be forecast to the future to determine how environmental change may influence the ecological and evolutionary structure of future populations and assemblages. The research findings will be developed into teaching modules for middle and high-school classrooms and the broader public. In parallel, the PI will revise her undergraduate classes to fit a framework of active learning and evidence-based pedagogical techniques. Overall, this project will significantly advance understanding of the patterns, processes, and outcomes of species responses to climate change, as well as the scientific literacy of the public.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

了解物种对环境变化的反应以及这些反应的长期后果，对于适当管理未来的生物多样性很重要。在美国西部，使用最近的哺乳动物种群（跨越了过去21，000年的环境变化），该项目将探讨不同物种和社区适应未来环境变化及其灭绝可能性的能力。研究结果将通过大学生和更广泛的公众转化为中学的基于证据的教育活动，旨在提高公众的科学素养。物种壁ni和社区环境相互作用，以塑造物种对环境变化的反应，这些反应的生态和进化遗产将在未来多年持续。为了调查人口水平对长期变化的驱动因素和结果，将挖掘过去1000年中美国西部的小型哺乳动物化石沉积物，并将其与先前从北加州的先前发掘的沉积物进行比较。气候，环境生态位和生物相互作用对跨时空和时间种群丰度变化的相对影响将被量化。然后，将确定人口水平的丰度变化对随着时间的流逝的组成，功能和遗传结构以及多样性的影响。最后，这些模式将预测未来，以确定环境变化如何影响未来人群和组合的生态和进化结构。研究发现将发展为中学和高中教室和更广泛的公众的教学模块。同时，PI将修改她的本科课程，以适合主动学习和基于证据的教学技术的框架。总体而言，该项目将大大提高对物种对气候变化的反应的模式，过程和结果的理解，以及公众的科学素养。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用评估的支持。基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响评论标准。