This year, we received wonderful news: we were awarded a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for our project.
Long-term Adaptation of Amphibians and Reptiles to Climate Change and Anthropogenic Pressure (W2633074)
Climate change and anthropogenic pressures are continuously exacerbating the global biodiversity crisis, yet systematic understanding of the long-term morphological adaptation mechanisms of organisms to environmental changes remains limited. Amphibians and reptiles, as important terrestrial ectothermic vertebrates, are highly sensitive to environmental changes; however, the patterns of their long-term morphological adaptation to global change are still not well-defined. This project proposes to integrate century-scale morphological data from natural history museum specimens with a meta-analysis of experimental data to systematically reveal the long-term morphological adaptation patterns of amphibians and reptiles in response to climate change and anthropogenic pressures. The project will focus on three main research areas: (1) quantifying historical trends in key morphological traits based on museum specimens; (2) analyzing the causal relationships between morphological variation and temperature and other environmental factors through a meta-analysis of experimental data; and (3) elucidating the interactive effects of climatic and anthropogenic drivers on morphological variation. The project will combine phylogenetic comparative methods and hierarchical Bayesian modeling to test core ecological hypotheses such as the “shrinking in size” hypothesis, reveal the mechanisms of morphological adaptation under multiple environmental stressors, and develop predictive models of morphological vulnerability under future climate scenarios. Additionally, it will identify vulnerable species and key conservation areas, providing theoretical foundations and methodological support for biodiversity conservation in the context of global change.