Assessing the long-term stability of adaptive radiations using the fossil record

使用化石记录评估适应性辐射的长期稳定性

• 批准号: 2050228
• 负责人: Melissa Kemp
• 金额: $ 59.51万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2050228&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Assessing; long; term; stability; adaptive

The proposed research uses an interdisciplinary approach to study diversification and extinction processes in changing environments. Adaptive radiation, the process whereby organisms diversify to fulfill a variety of ecological roles, is responsible for producing many of the spectacular ecological communities on our planet. But whether the ecological communities generated from adaptive radiations persist over long timescales–and the extent to which they are reshaped by environmental change–remains an unresolved question. This project will reconstruct morphological diversity in a model system–the Anolis lizards of the Caribbean–to evaluate the longevity of morphological diversity generated by adaptive radiations. This research bridges the biological sciences and the geosciences, providing an interdisciplinary platform to train a diverse set of students, including undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds and students who are training to become K-12 STEM teachers. Additionally, 3 dimensional models of skulls generated by this project will be used to develop new educational modules on morphological evolution and diversity change through time that will be deployed in undergraduate and high school classrooms. The proposed research provides significant information in four main areas: (1) characterizing how species partition morphospace in an adaptive radiation; (2) establishing whether ecological communities persist over geologic timescales; (3) identifying the nature of phenotypic change over geological timescales; and (4) determining if shifts in phenotypic diversity are correlated to environmental changes. These issues will be addressed through the creation of a comprehensive, high-resolution X-ray chromatography dataset of extant Anolis species from alcohol-preserved museum specimens and integration of those data with Anolis fossil specimens from throughout the Greater Antilles. The research is relevant to evolutionary biologists, ecologists, paleontologists, and will be particularly instructive in identifying how ecological communities might change in the future.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.

拟议的研究采用跨学科方法来研究不断变化的环境中的多样化和灭绝过程，适应性辐射是生物体多样化以履行各种生态角色的过程，是在我们的星球上产生许多壮观的生态群落的原因。由适应性辐射产生的生态群落在很长一段时间内持续存在——以及它们在多大程度上被环境变化重塑——仍然是一个悬而未决的问题，该项目将重建模型系统——安乐蜥蜴的形态多样性。加勒比地区——评估适应性辐射产生的形态多样性的寿命。这项研究将生物科学和地球科学联系起来，提供了一个跨学科平台来培训多元化的学生，包括来自弱势背景的本科生和正在接受培训的学生。 12 名 STEM 教师此外，该项目生成的 3 维头骨模型将用于开发关于随时间变化的形态进化和多样性变化的新教育模块，该模块将部署在本科和高中课堂中。四个主要领域的信息：（1）描述物种如何在适应性辐射中划分形态空间；（2）确定生态群落在地质时间尺度上是否持续存在；（3）确定地质时间尺度上的表型变化的性质；表型多样性的变化与环境变化相关，这些问题将通过从酒精保存的博物馆标本中创建一个全面的、高分辨率的 X 射线色谱数据集来解决。这些数据来自整个大安的列斯群岛的安乐蜥化石标本，与进化生物学家、生态学家、古生物学家相关，并且对于确定生态群落未来如何变化特别具有指导意义。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并被认为是。值得通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。