NSF PRFB FY 2023: Thermoregulatory evolution of hummingbirds: Using urban heat islands as a globally replicated natural experiment

NSF PRFB 2023 财年：蜂鸟的体温调节进化：利用城市热岛作为全球复制的自然实验

• 批准号: 2305367
• 负责人: Valentina Alaasam
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Alaasam, Valentina
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-06-01 至 2027-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2305367&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; PRFB; FY; 2023; Thermoregulatory

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, 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. Species are facing rapid changes in ambient temperature due to changing climate. To survive, organisms will need to adjust their physiology through a combination of phenotypic change and genetic change. Whether the rate and magnitude of these responses can match changes across environments with varying temperatures will determine whether populations persist or go locally extinct. This fellowship uses cities to study evolutionary responses to changing ambient temperatures on contemporary timescales. Replacement of vegetation with paved surfaces creates an Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect where mean and extreme temperatures are higher compared to undisturbed surroundings. The UHI effect is a nearly universal characteristic of cities worldwide, resulting in well-distributed, globally-replicated thermal gradients. By linking environmental, phenotypic, and genetic variation, results will shed light on the fundamental processes underlying the persistence, evolutionary potential, and genetic divergence of endothermic species facing warmer climates. By testing hypotheses in four cities across a latitudinal gradient, this project will determine how environmental context will shape evolutionary outcomes. The fellow will investigate how urban heat is affecting the evolution of complex thermoregulatory traits and genetic divergence in hummingbirds, a model taxon for detecting population-level responses to changing climate. Hummingbirds have some of the highest mass-specific metabolisms of all endotherms and store very little fat, making them particularly sensitive to changes in temperature and instrumental for detecting population-level responses to changing climate. The fellow will measure morphology, behavior (torpor use), thermal tolerance (using respirometry), and daily energy expenditure (using doubly-labeled water) of paired urban and non-urban hummingbird populations. Using next-generation sequencing, the fellow will then conduct a genome-wide association study to identify regions of the genome that may be under selection by urban heat. Studies will be conducted in four cities across a latitudinal gradient to describe how the flexibility of thermoregulatory traits and resulting evolutionary potential may vary across latitudes. And by engaging with local communities, the outcomes of this research will contribute to designing greener cities that both promote biodiversity and reduce the negative impacts of urban heat on underserved human communities.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2023财年生物学的NSF博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，该研究综合研究调查了有关基因组，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。由于气候变化，物种正面临着周围温度的快速变化。为了生存，有机体将需要通过表型变化和遗传变化的结合来调整其生理。这些响应的速率和幅度是否可以匹配随着温度变化的环境的变化，将决定人口是否持续或局部灭绝。该奖学金利用城市研究对当代时间尺度周围环境温度变化的进化反应。用铺路表面代替植被会产生一个城市热岛（UHI）效应，与不受干扰的环境相比，平均温度和极端温度更高。 UHI效应是全球城市几乎普遍的特征，导致了良好的全球恢复热梯度。通过将环境，表型和遗传变异联系起来，结果将阐明持久性，进化潜力和遗传差异的基本过程，面向温暖气候的吸热物种的遗传差异。通过测试纬度梯度四个城市中的假设，该项目将决定环境环境将如何塑造进化结果。 该研究员将调查城市热量如何影响蜂鸟中复杂的温度调节性状和遗传差异的演变，这是一种模型分类单元，用于检测人口水平对气候变化的反应。蜂鸟具有所有吸热量的最高质量特异性代谢，并且储存很少的脂肪，使其对温度变化特别敏感，并且对检测人口级别的反应对变化的气候变化。该研究员将测量成对的城市和非城市蜂鸟种群的形态，热耐受性（使用呼吸测定法）和每日能量消耗（使用双标记的水）。然后，使用下一代测序，研究员将进行全基因组关联研究，以识别城市热量可能正在选择的基因组区域。研究将在纬度梯度的四个城市进行，以描述温度调节性状和产生的进化潜力的柔韧性如何在纬度之间有所不同。 通过与当地社区互动，这项研究的结果将有助于设计更绿色的城市，既促进生物多样性，又减少城市热量对服务不足的人类社区的负面影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为通过使用该基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估Criteria的评估，并被视为值得通过评估的支持。