NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Genomic-Phenomic Convergence of Andean and Himalayan Elevational Migrant Birds

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, 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. Elevational niche-shift migration is an uncommon behavior involving seasonal elevational shifts of 2,000 meters or more.

This behavior, which has evolved in at least 30 families of birds, illustrates extreme seasonal physiological flexibility, whereby certain populations can acclimatize to environments that differ starkly in temperature, pressure, air density, UV exposure, and communities of interacting species. The fellow will investigate how parallel evolution of bird genomes, in conjunction with phenotypic flexibility, may have shaped repeated evolution of elevational niche-shift migration across the Andes and Himalayas.

The fellow will consider the causes and consequences of elevational niche-shift migration from the perspectives of ecology, evolution, and physiology, and at various spatial and phylogenetic scales of comparison. The project will generate valuable museum specimens that include frozen tissues, as well as detailed data on genomes, physiology, and migration.

This research will provide understanding of how animals can cope with and adjust to profound environmental change that is experienced during the lifetime of individuals.

Comparative biology using phylogenies becomes enormously powerful when genome or transcriptome sequences are combined with diverse trait and performance data. This approach can reveal mechanisms that underpin physiology, behavior, and many aspects of biodiversity. The fellow will sample species from across the avian phylogeny and use whole-genome data to test for predictable patterns of molecular evolution in bird populations that undergo elevational niche-shift migration in the Andes and Himalayas, respectively.

As a second comparative test, the fellow will assess the degree to which permanent high-altitude resident species undergo parallel or anti-parallel evolution with species that migrate to high altitudes seasonally. In the field, the fellow will manipulate partial pressure of oxygen to quantify transcriptomic plasticity among low-altitude residents, high-altitude residents, and elevational migrant species, and will evaluate whether elevational shifts predict degree of plasticity.

To broaden the impact of the research, the fellow will: 1) mentor and train undergraduate students from underrepresented groups; 2) teach specimen preparation workshops to students and researchers in Peru; 3) contribute to natural history collections growth, infrastructural and procedural upgrades, and outreach efforts at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates and Centro de Ornitología y Biodiversidad; and 4) publish popular articles that improve the accessibility of complex evolutionary phenomena.

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.