NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biology combine research and training components to prepare young scientists for careers in biology and require a plan to broaden participation of groups under-represented in science and engineering. The fellowships advance NSF efforts to diversify the STEM workforce now and in the future. The research and training plan for this fellowship to Israel Del Toro involves forecasting impacts of climate and national boundaries on biodiversity conservation and management along the southern U.S. border. The host institutions for this fellowship are the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen and New Mexico State University, and the sponsoring scientists are Drs. Nathan J. Sanders and Brandon Bestelmeyer. The research investigates two arthropod taxa, ants and beetles, in the eight major ecoregions along the border with Mexico where landscape and biodiversity management strategies differ. This research integrates climate change ecology, biogeography and political ecology. Results are expected to impact how the U.S and Mexico can collaborate to maintain biodiversity. Training objectives include learning modeling techniques used in ecology and social science research. Undergraduate students from under-represented groups are conducting independent subprojects at the Sevilleta Long Term Ecological Research Station. Additionally, the Fellow is making results and data from this research publically and freely available via a website during the final year of the fellowship tenure. This fellowship is funded by both the Office of International and Integrative Activities and the Directorate for Biological Sciences.
The research tests the hypothesis that fragmentation and different management and conservation strategies along, and on either side of, the socio-political boundary profoundly impact the distribution and abundance of ant and beetle species with trans-boundary ranges. Field sampling methods along elevational gradients at multiple sites in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico are being used to track changes in community assembly and species richness patterns. These data are then used in species distribution models and generalized dissimilarity models to predict future compositional changes along the shared border ecoregions.
