Collaborative Research: RAPID: Testing the Mechanisms and Consequences of an Adaptive Response to a Catastrophic Fire and Heatwave in Stream Frogs

合作研究：RAPID：测试溪流青蛙对灾难性火灾和热浪的适应性响应的机制和后果

• 批准号: 2221809
• 负责人: Chris Funk
• 金额: $ 12.11万
• 依托单位: Colorado State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2221809&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RAPID; Testing; Mechanisms

Climate change is causing more extreme weather events such as fires and heatwaves. In addition to the tragic loss of human life, such events have a devastating effect on animals and plants. One challenge for biologists is to understand how species will respond to such climatic events – if they can cope or if they will go extinct. To meet this challenge, researchers must identify what biological changes occur following extreme climatic events. This project seeks to understand how populations of tailed frogs, which are found in cold streams of the Pacific Northwest, have coped in the aftermath of a large fire and heatwave. The research team had been studying the physiology and genetics of tailed frogs in this region for 4 years before the fire and heatwave occurred in 2020-2021. Only a year and a half after these events, the researchers will measure what physiological, genetic, and other changes have occurred in the frog populations. This will allow the researchers to 1) understand how the frog responded to extreme climatic events, 2) predict how they will respond in the future, and 3) present their findings to local land managers to discuss possible conservation strategies for frogs and other freshwater aquatic species in the area, and 4) train a postdoctoral and undergraduate researcher. Species can respond to extreme climatic events via plasticity and/or adaptation. How populations respond may depend on the magnitude and severity of environmental change, although investigations of responses to extreme climatic events are rare. For four years, the researchers have been studying the thermal sensitivity and adaptive capacity of coastal tailed frogs (Ascaphus truei), a dominant herbivore in fast-flowing streams in the Pacific Northwest, to predict their responses to climate change. They have measured stream thermal characteristics, tadpole thermal physiology, and identified genomic markers associated with those variables. In 2020, an intense forest fire burned on top of two of the study streams. A year later, an unprecedented heatwave impacted all of the sites. The proposed research will test hypotheses about changes that have occurred at the environmental, physiological, and genomic levels in response to these climatic events. This research will (i) identify patterns of thermal physiological change in fire- and heatwave-affected populations, (ii) test for signatures of genetically-based adaptation to the fire and heatwave, and (iii) integrate physiological and genomic findings to predict the degree to which persistence of populations changes as a result of each extreme climatic event.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.

气候变化正在引起更极端的天气事件，例如火灾和热浪。除了悲惨的人类生命丧失外，此类事件对动物和植物也具有毁灭性的影响。生物学家的一个挑战是了解物种将如何应对这种气候事件 - 如果它们可以应对或灭绝。为了应对这一挑战，研究人员必须确定极端气候事件后发生的生物学变化。该项目旨在了解在太平洋西北的冷溪中发现的尾蛙种群是如何在大火和热浪之后应对的。研究小组在2020 - 2021年发生火灾和热浪发生之前，一直在研究该地区尾蛙的生理和遗传学。这些事件仅一年半，研究人员将衡量青蛙种群中的生理，遗传和其他变化。这将使研究人员到达1）了解青蛙对极端气候事件的反应，2）预测他们将来将如何反应，3）向当地的土地管理者提出他们的发现，以讨论该地区青蛙和其他淡水水生物种的可能的保护策略，以及4）训练一名博士后和研究生研究人员。物种可以通过可塑性和/或适应来应对极端气候事件。人口的反应可能取决于环境变化的幅度和严重程度，尽管对极端气候事件的反应的调查很少。四年来，研究人员一直在研究沿海青蛙（Ascapus truei）的热敏感性和适应能力，这是西北太平洋地区快速流动流中的主要草食动物，以预测它们对气候变化的反应。他们测量了流热特性，t t热生理，并鉴定出与这些变量相关的基因组标记。在2020年，在两个研究流的顶部燃烧了一场激烈的森林大火。一年后，一个前所未有的热浪影响了所有站点。拟议的研究将检验有关响应​​这些气候事件的环境，生理和基因组水平上发生的变化的假设。这项研究将（i）确定火灾和受热的人群中热生理变化的模式，（ii）测试基于遗传和热浪的基于遗传的适应性的签名，以及（iii）综合的生理和基因组发现，以预测人群的持久性，通过每种极端的降级奖励，这是在高度悬而未决的情况下都在反映的。基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。