NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Are the Consequences of Wildlife Extirpation in Tropical Forests Reshaping the Drivers of Plant Mortality?

美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后奖学金：热带森林野生动物灭绝的后果是否重塑了植物死亡的驱动因素？

• 批准号: 2209070
• 负责人: Justine Lamperty
• 金额: $ 20.7万
• 依托单位: Lamperty, Justine Therese
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-01 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209070&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Consequences

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Tropical forests hold more species than any other ecosystem. Unfortunately, human activities are reducing the number of large- and medium-sized animals in these forests, a phenomenon called defaunation. Losing these animals eliminates their interactions with plants and other animals, which means that defaunation can trigger a cascade of changes in how tropical forests are functioning. One example of this is that defaunation leads to the loss of many fruit-eating animals that disperse seeds, an important part of forest regeneration. When taken together, changes that are occurring as tropical forests become defaunated may alter factors determining the diversity and survival dynamics of plants in these important and biodiverse ecosystems. This project will investigate if, how, and to what extent defaunation may be doing this through multiple experiments set up in defaunated and intact tropical forests in Ecuador. Further, this project facilitates ecological and conservation education through outreach, training, and mentoring to diverse audiences that include high school and undergraduate students, young scientists, and members of the public.The central mechanism maintaining the unmatched plant diversity in the tropics is thought to be negative density-dependent mortality, by which spatially aggregated plant individuals, particularly conspecific and especially related individuals, face heightened attacks from a suite of plant-enemies (e.g., fungal pathogens, insect and vertebrate herbivores, and seed predators). By triggering multiple ecological cascades, defaunation may directly and indirectly affect the impacts these plant enemies have. For example, one consequence of defaunation is decreased seed dispersal services resulting in lower plant genetic diversity, potentially also reducing the diversity of genes important for mounting defenses against pathogens. This project investigates if defaunation alters the drivers of seed and seedling mortality, thereby reshaping what structures plant diversity in tropical forests. This research compares multiple defaunated and faunally-intact sites and integrates experimental manipulations (e.g., treatments that exclude specific groups of plant enemies) with genomics to mechanistically understand how the relative and overall strengths of different plant enemies change under defaunation. The Fellow will develop several new skills including competence in genomics and bioinformatics. Broader impacts include working with local high school students from minority backgrounds through science internships and workshops.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.

该行动为2022财年的生物学生物学研究金提供了一项NSF博士后研究奖学金，该研究研究了研究基因组，环境和表型之间相互作用的生活规则。奖学金支持对研究员的研究和培训，这些研究和培训将以创新的方式为生活规则做出贡献。热带森林的物种比任何其他生态系统都多。不幸的是，人类的活动正在减少这些森林中中型和中型动物的数量，这一现象称为defaunation。失去这些动物消除了它们与植物和其他动物的相互作用，这意味着de灭会触发热带森林运作方式的一系列级联变化。一个例子是，贬低会导致散布种子的许多饮食动物的丧失，这是森林再生的重要组成部分。当一起，随着热带森林变成偏耕的发生的变化可能会改变决定这些重要和生物多样性生态系统中植物多样性和生存动态的因素。该项目将通过在厄瓜多尔的诽谤和完整的热带森林中建立的多个实验来研究该项目是否，如何，以及在何种程度上进行贬低。此外，该项目通过宣传，培训和指导包括高中和本科生，年轻科学家以及公众的多样化的受众群体来促进生态和保护教育。维持热带地区无与伦比的植物多样性的核心机制被认为是依赖于空间的人，特别是在空间上，尤其是彼此相关的植物，特别是相关的植物，以及相关的群体，以及相关的群体，并具有相关的群体，该植物是彼此的，尤其是相关的人，并具有相关性的相关性，该植物是彼此的，并具有相关的群体，并具有相关的群体，该植物是彼此的，尤其是相关的植物，并具有相关性的相关性，该植物的生产力是高度依赖的。 （例如，真菌病原体，昆虫和脊椎动物食草动物以及种子捕食者）。通过触发多种生态级联，de灭可能会直接和间接影响这些植物敌人所产生的影响。例如，脱殖的结果是降低种子分散服务，导致植物遗传多样性降低，这也可能降低了基因的多样性，这对于防御病原体的防御能力很重要。该项目调查了defaunation是否改变了种子和幼苗死亡率的驱动因素，从而重塑了热带森林中植物多样性的结构。这项研究比较了多个defaunated和fauntallimtact的位点，并整合了实验操作（例如，将特定植物敌人群体排除在外的治疗方法）与基因组学以机械师了解不同植物敌人的相对优势如何在违约下变化。该研究员将发展几种新技能，包括基因组学和生物信息学的能力。更广泛的影响包括通过科学实习和讲习班与来自少数族裔背景的当地高中生合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评估标准通过评估来支持的。