The Small Mammals of the Paisley and Connley Caves: Disentangling Drivers of Diversity in Pleistocene Extinction Survivors

佩斯利和康利洞穴的小型哺乳动物：解开更新世灭绝幸存者多样性的驱动因素

• 批准号: 2228632
• 负责人: Rebecca Terry
• 金额: $ 91.15万
• 依托单位: Oregon State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-15 至 2026-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2228632&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Small; Mammals; Paisley; Connley; Caves

The project will test how climate change and humans have altered small mammal communities over the last 17,000 years. Paleontological studies have greatly increased our understanding of the ecological impacts of climate change and the extinction of large-bodied mammals at the end of the last Ice Age. Little is known, however, about how climate change, human impacts, and the loss of large mammals have shaped the ecology of the smallest extinction survivors: mammals under 3 kilograms (e.g., squirrels, rats and mice). This is despite the important and diverse roles that small mammals play in ecosystems. This knowledge gap is not only a problem for paleontology; ecologists also don’t fully understand the direct and indirect ways that climate change and human impacts are changing the ecosystems in which we live today. Studying how the smallest mammals have responded to major ecological disruption will thus help us better predict how mammalian communities today are likely to shift in the future. This is important because ecosystems today are often changing in ways we cannot predict using climate change alone. In addition to testing how small mammal communities have changed over time, this project will develop a Virtual Field Trip that will educate participants on the Great Basin’s natural and cultural histories. This activity will provide training to undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher and engage elementary age students and teachers in rural Oregon schools.To meet this challenge, this research will use the paleontological and archaeological records of the Paisley and Connley Caves. The caves are in the northwestern Great Basin, a now-threatened ecoregion that was central to the peopling of the Western Hemisphere. Fossils will be used to estimate the diversity and function of small mammal communities from 17,000 years ago to today. Radiocarbon dating of these fossils, and surveys of modern small mammals, will help answer questions about how climate change and human presence have together shaped biodiversity in the past and the present. The research will also study how small mammal communities today differ from what they were like just before European contact. Thus, the research will highlight the importance of museum collections and the value of fossils for Modern conservation efforts.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.

该项目将测试气候变化和人类在过去17，000年中如何改变小型哺乳动物社区。古生物学研究大大增加了我们对最后冰河时代结束时气候变化的生态影响以及大型哺乳动物的扩展的理解。然而，关于气候变化，人类影响和大型哺乳动物的丧失如何影响最小的延伸生存的生态：哺乳动物以下3公斤（例如，松鼠，大鼠和小鼠）的生态，鲜为人知。这是小型哺乳动物在生态系统中扮演的重要和多样性的作用。这种知识差距不仅是古生物学的问题。生态学家也不完全了解气候变化和人类影响正在改变我们今天所生活的生态系统的直接和间接方式。因此，研究最小的哺乳动物如何对重大生态破坏做出反应将有助于我们更好地预测当今的哺乳动物社区如何在未来发生变化。这很重要，因为当今的生态系统经常以我们无法单独使用气候变化预测的方式变化。除了测试小型哺乳动物社区的变化之外，该项目还将开发一次虚拟实地考察，该旅行将教育参与者关于大流域的自然和文化历史。这项活动将为本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员提供培训，并与俄勒冈州粗糙学校的小学生和老师一起吸引。为了应对这一挑战，这项研究将使用佩斯利和康利洞穴的古生物学和存档记录。这些洞穴位于西北大盆地，这是一个现已威胁的生态区，是西半球人民的核心。从17，000年前到今天，化石将用于估计小型哺乳动物社区的多样性和功能。这些化石的放射性碳年代和现代小型哺乳动物的调查将有助于回答有关气候变化和人类在过去和现在如何塑造生物多样性的问题。这项研究还将研究当今的小型哺乳动物社区与欧洲接触之前的情况有何不同。这项研究将强调博物馆收藏的重要性以及化石对现代保护工作的价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，通过评估诚实地表示支持。