| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 11, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 11, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1523605 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Simon Malcomber
smalcomb@nsf.gov (703)292-8227 DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | August 18, 2014 |
| End Date: | March 31, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $581,629.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $290,526.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
601 S KNOLES DR RM 220 FLAGSTAFF AZ US 86011 (928)523-0886 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
AZ US 86001-5640 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Biodiversity: Discov &Analysis |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001516DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Eleodes is a flightless genus of darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) endemic to western North America. Commonly called stink beetles, Eleodes are known for their "headstanding" behavior and the noxious chemicals they eject when threatened. This project will open the genus to other disciplines by addressing century-old systematic challenges through a comprehensive phylogenetic research strategy and an innovative, content management system-based data accumulation approach. It will create a virtual specimen-based knowledge environment for Eleodes taxonomy, morphology, and natural history linking specimens, images, and reference works to associated taxonomic, phylogenetic, ontologically annotated anatomical and geographic data.
This project will strongly advance our understanding of Eleodes and tenebrionid systematics through focused training of a postdoctoral scholar, a Ph.D. student, and minimally 8-12 undergraduate students. Virtually all data generated will be available through the project web portal and secondarily uploaded to EOL and Morphbank. The scientific community and general public will be engaged through a synergistic extension of Eleodes specimen data and images to the "Southwest Collections of Arthropods Network" (SCAN), the creation of a biodiversity informatics lab module, and by incorporating Eleodes biology and diversity themes into ASU's outreach program, including the development of learning applications and implementation of school and museum activities.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Over the life of this project, participants were able to achieve all of the research and broader impact objectives outlined in the proposal. National Science Foundation funding resulted in significant training, outreach, and research opportunities for participants and the public, while also resulting in a comprehensive phylogenetic revision of the darkling beetle tribe Amphidorini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), particularly the species-rich and morphologically diverse genus Eleodes.
All told, this project provided training to the PI, a postdoc, one Ph.D. student, and 34 undergraduates, who have learned skills ranging from genomic DNA extraction, amplification, sequencing, and phylogenetic analysis to museum specimen imaging, georeferencing, and databasing; and morphological data collection, analysis, and use in matrix-based descriptions and multi-entry key construction. Project participants also led outreach activities at schools and science-oriented outreach events reaching well over 600 community members ranging from preschoolers to retired life-long learners.
As part of the scientific research needed to revise the Amphidorini, project participants visited 25 museums in seven countries, and performed fieldwork across the Southwestern US and Mexico, as well as targeted research in Guatemala and Argentina. Based on this work, plus untold hours of research at our home institutions, an Amphidorini phylogeny has been reconstructed for the first time, which indicates the need for profound changes in the current classification. To date, twenty scientific publications have been produced or are currently in press based on this project, with at least eight more in preparation. While the production of scientific products (manuscripts, web-accessible keys, images, etc.) is still ongoing, this project has already made a vast amount of historic and new information on this species-rich group of darkling beetles available to the general public and researchers in other fields.
Last Modified: 06/30/2017
Modified by: Aaron D Smith
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