PurSUiT: Collaborative Research: Accelerating Lineage Discovery to Document Neotropical Fern Diversity

追求：合作研究：加速谱系发现以记录新热带蕨类植物多样性

• 批准号: 2045325
• 负责人: Michael Sundue
• 金额: $ 42.91万
• 依托单位: University of Vermont & State Agricultural College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2023-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2045325&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PurSUiT; Collaborative; Research; Accelerating; Lineage

Understanding the diversity and distribution of species on Earth is important for many reasons, but the process of documenting and describing biodiversity often cannot keep up with the rate of habitat loss and the extinction of species. This is especially true in tropical regions of the world, where the number of undescribed and poorly known species is highest and biodiversity is most severely threatened. This research aims to contribute to documentation of Earth’s plant diversity by studying the diversity of ferns in Colombia, one of the most species-rich countries on Earth. In this work, the researchers will document fern diversity by conducting surveys in remote parts of the country that have been poorly explored by scientists, as well as studying specimens of ferns in museum collections. This project will improve our understanding of how many fern species exist in Colombia, where they occur, and how many of them are threatened with extinction. This project will also result in the description of species that are new to science and provide insights into the origins of plant diversity by reconstructing the evolutionary history of ferns through analysis of DNA sequences. An important contribution of this work will be the creation of a freely accessible online database that will organize data on ferns in Colombia and help future researchers to study these plants. This project will also provide training for two graduate students and more than a dozen undergraduate students in biodiversity research and will improve scientific collaboration. Findings of this research will be shared with the public through partnerships with schools, freely available online videos, and displays at a botanical garden in the United States. This research will document diversity of ferns in Colombia through a unified taxonomic and evolutionary context using a multi-faceted approach. First, gaps in the current understanding of species distributions in Colombia will be addressed through field expeditions to understudied regions of Colombia that are predicted to harbor high levels of fern diversity, complemented by targeted study of herbarium specimens at major herbaria. Second, in order to improve accessibility of data on Colombia ferns, resources for an existing online database will be bolstered, producing a data-rich, publicly available, specimen-driven taxonomic resource for fern diversity research in the American tropics. This resource will include a searchable specimen database, multi-entry keys to families and genera, and specimen-driven national and regional checklists. Third, to better understand Colombian fern diversity within an evolutionary context, genomic resources will be generated for all fern species in Colombia, including a DNA and leaf-tissue bank for all collections, ploidy estimates, and target capture sequence data to conduct comprehensive phylogenomic analyses. Finally, these data will be integrated to detect and describe yet-overlooked diversity, including complete taxonomic treatments for four prominent and complex genera.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.

由于许多原因，了解地球上物种的多样性和分布很重要，但是记录和描述生物多样性的过程通常无法跟上栖息地损失的速度和物种的扩展。在世界的热带地区尤其如此，在世界的热带地区，未描述和众所周知的物种的数量最高，而生物多样性受到最严重威胁。这项研究旨在通过研究地球上种类繁多的国家之一哥伦比亚的蕨类植物的多样性来为地球植物多样性的文献记录做出贡献。在这项工作中，研究人员将通过在该国偏远地区进行的调查记录蕨类植物的多样性，这些偏远地区受到科学家探索的不良探索，并研究博物馆收藏中的蕨类植物物种。该项目将提高我们对哥伦比亚存在的蕨类物种的理解，以及其中有多少人受到扩展的威胁。该项目还将导致对科学新的物种的描述，并通过通过分析DNA序列来重建蕨类植物的进化历史来对植物多样性的起源进行见解。这项工作的重要贡献将是创建一个免费的在线数据库，该数据库将组织有关哥伦比亚蕨类植物的数据，并帮助未来的研究人员研究这些植物。该项目还将为两名研究生和十几个生物多样性研究的本科生提供培训，并将改善科学合作。这项研究的结果将通过与学校的合作伙伴关系，免费的在线视频以及在美国的植物园展示与公众共享。这项研究将使用多方面的方法通过统一的分类和进化环境来记录哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性。首先，将通过现场探险来解决当前对哥伦比亚物种分布的差距，以了解哥伦比亚的区域，这些地区预计将通过对主要草药中的植物标本室标本的有针对性研究完成。其次，为了提高哥伦比亚蕨类植物的数据的可访问性，现有在线数据库的资源将得到加固，从而为美国热带地区的蕨类植物多样性研究产生数据丰富的，公开的，标本驱动的分类资源。该资源将包括一个可搜索的标本数据库，家庭和属的多输入密钥，以及标本驱动的国家和区域清单。第三，为了更好地了解哥伦比亚蕨类植物的多样性，将为哥伦比亚的所有蕨类物种生成基因组资源，包括用于所有集合，倍增性估计值和目标捕获序列数据以进行全面的系统基因分析，包括DNA和Leaf-Tissue Bank。最后，这些数据将集成以检测和描述尚未被忽略的多样性，包括针对四个突出和复杂属的完整分类治疗。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子的优点和更广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务。