CAREER: Integrating Western Science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) to Understand Aphonopelma Diversity Across the Madrean Sky Islands and Educate K-12 Tribal Students

职业：整合西方科学和传统生态知识 (TEK)，了解马德雷天空群岛的 Aphonopelma 多样性并教育 K-12 部落学生

• 批准号: 2144339
• 负责人: Chris Hamilton
• 金额: $ 101.63万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Idaho
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-01-15 至 2027-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2144339&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Integrating; Western; Science; Traditional

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Adapting to climate change is a fundamental challenge for life on Earth. As organisms are forced to move in search of hospitable habitat, species leave areas no longer favorable and expand into new areas, or they go extinct. These events are playing out across North America’s Madrean Pine-Oak woodlands, a biodiversity hotspot, as increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation push the endemic organisms further up the mountains. The sky islands are natural laboratories perfect for evolutionary studies because each sky island can be thought of as a replicate, with each representing a time point in an ongoing natural experiment. With one-fifth of the world’s invertebrates at risk for extinction, species with a limited ability to move, like the long-lived Aphonopelma – the only tarantula genus in the United States - are of particular concern. If these species are lost to extinction before discovery, this biodiversity knowledge will be lost forever. This research will inform our understanding of island biogeography theory and the evolutionary history of the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands biodiversity hotspot. Importantly, this biodiversity hotspot is found within the sovereign land of the Apache and Tohono O’odham peoples. This land, its geology, and the flora and fauna holds significant scientific and cultural knowledge (Traditional Ecological Knowledge – TEK) for these tribes. Gained through thousands of years of living with the land, tribes have an intimate understanding of the interconnections between people and the environment (e.g., how climate change has altered the seasonal patterns and distributions of sky island biodiversity). The goal of this research is to integrate Western science and TEK to better understand the evolutionary patterns and processes that led to the remarkable radiation of Aphonopelma spiders throughout the sky islands, and how climate change is going to impact this diversity in the future. The education component of this project will develop a unique STEM program for San Carlos Apache K-12 students that integrates their TEK with modern research to show them how they can become the next generation of protectors of their tribe’s natural resources.The overarching question this research looks to answer is whether the Madrean Archipelago has been a generator for North American tarantula diversity. Specifically, this research will use genome data to understand if the sky island Aphonopelma species evolved once or many times. This will allow the researchers to determine what advantageous changes in the genome occurred when species moved into the sky islands and diversified by adapting to new habitats, and whether sky island species will be able to adapt to global climate change. Lastly, the researchers will work with San Carlos Apache elders to show tribal K-12 students how TEK and Western science can be utilized together to better understand the world around them. This combined effort will take students into the different sky island ranges to collect specimens and link the organisms with the land and their TEK. In the classroom, this collaboration will use a “LEGO DNA sequencer” to teach the students about DNA and genetics and introduce students to genome sequencing and bioinformatics. This project will produce transformative results with high scientific impact by informing our understanding of how climate change has and will affect the genetic diversity of a biodiversity hotspot, as well as by including the most underrepresented group in the sciences, Native peoples, in this process.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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来源于《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）。适应气候变化是地球上生命面临的一项根本挑战。随着生物体被迫迁移以寻找适宜的栖息地，物种离开不再有利的地区并扩展到新的地区，或者灭绝。随着气温升高和降水减少，这些事件正在北美洲的马德雷松橡树林中上演，这是生物多样性的热点。天空岛是进化研究的完美天然实验室，因为每个天空岛都可以被认为是一个复制品，每个天空岛都代表着世界上五分之一的无脊椎动物处于危险之中的一个时间点。就灭绝而言，移动能力有限的物种，例如长寿的狼蛛属——美国唯一的狼蛛属——尤其令人担忧，如果这些物种在被发现之前就已经灭绝，那么这些生物多样性知识就会消失。这项研究将帮助我们了解岛屿生物地理学理论和马德雷安松橡林生物多样性热点的进化历史。重要的是，这个生物多样性热点位于阿帕奇人和托霍诺奥德姆人的主权土地上。它的地质、动植物群拥有重要的科学和文化知识（传统生态知识 - TEK），这些部落通过与这片土地生活了数千年而获得了深入的了解。这项研究的目标是将西方科学和 TEK 结合起来，以更好地理解导致天空岛生物多样性的进化模式和过程。天空岛上 Aphonopelma 蜘蛛的显着辐射，以及气候变化将如何影响未来的这种多样性。该项目的教育部分将为圣卡洛斯阿帕奇 K-12 学生开发一个独特的 STEM 项目，将他们的 TEK 与现代研究向他们展示如何成为部落自然资源的下一代保护者。这项研究想要回答的首要问题是马德雷安群岛是否是北美狼蛛多样性的发生器。具体来说，这项研究将使用基因组。数据来了解天空岛 Aphonopelma 物种是否进化了一次或多次，这将使研究人员能够确定当物种迁移到天空岛并通过适应新的栖息地而多样化时，基因组发生了哪些有利的变化，以及天空是否。最后，研究人员将与圣卡洛斯阿帕奇长者合作，向部落 K-12 学生展示如何共同利用 TEK 和西方科学来更好地了解他们周围的世界。将带领学生进入不同的天空岛范围收集标本，并将生物与土地及其 TEK 连接起来。在课堂上，此次合作将使用“乐高 DNA 测序仪”向学生教授 DNA 和遗传学知识，并向学生介绍基因组。测序和该项目将通过让我们了解气候变化如何影响生物多样性热点的遗传多样性，以及将科学领域中代表性最不足的群体——土著人民纳入其中，产生具有重大科学影响的变革性成果。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。