复杂的发现

Tomas Hrbek has a knack for complexity.

你可以从他的眼睛里看到——当他解释生物多样性的概念时，复杂的光学器官兴奋地发出能量的闪电.

你可以从他复杂的捷克和葡萄牙混合口音中听出来，这些口音是在深入研究的高度磨练出来的, where ‘pele’ and ‘formiga’ sneak into euphonious English explanations.

你可以在他的研究中读到这一点——对亚马逊雨林深处不同生态系统和密集数据集的复杂探索.

幸运的是 Mico schneideri, complexity is in Tomas Hrbek’s DNA. 事实上, 正是这种复杂性使得这种新的亚马逊灵长类动物从多年的田野调查和调查中脱颖而出. Mico schneideri, or Schneider’s marmoset, 由于缺乏基本的生态和分布数据，近三十年来一直被误认为是完全不同的物种.

To understand this misidentification—and the complexity it took to describe Mico schneideri correctly—we travel nearly 5,从圣安东尼奥到马托格罗索州Juruena-Teles Pires矿产省的森林，绵延1000英里, 巴西. At the confluence of the Juruena and Teles Pires Rivers, this province lies directly within the “arc of deforestation,亚马逊雨林的南部边缘正在迅速被清除，用于养牛, small-scale subsistence farming, 和日志记录. It’s here that Hrbek, Rodrigo Costa-Araújo, Ph.D., from the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and the Federal University of Amazonas, 他们的团队开始了一系列深入雨林树冠的旅行, 对这种很快被称为施耐德狨猴的动物进行视觉和听觉观察.

我们的目标? To “obtain new distribution records, 标本, 和样本来克服以前博物馆和文献中这些材料和数据的稀缺性,” Hrbek and his team wrote in a 2021 article for Nature’s 科学报告. 这田野调查, 被称为测量, consisted of forest treks and up-stream canoeing to approximate, 目录, and geolocate call-and-response observations.

“We were not specifically looking for a new marmoset,” Hrbek admits. 而, 该团队希望记录大量关于亚马逊猴属狨猴的一般数据, 狨猴是该地区鲜为人知的特有物种，因此是研究和保护工作的重点.”

But with time in the field spent watching common behaviors, using and understanding vocalization techniques, and analyzing skins in museum collections, the team began to hone in on the fact that they weren’t observing Mico emiliae或Snethlage的狨猴，因为Schneider的狨猴之前被分类. “It then became clear that in this particular area, 有一些东西与之前看到的任何东西都不匹配,赫贝克说.

Hrbek works with 澳门金沙线上赌博官网 Coatney ’23 and Elizabeth Proctor ’22 in his lab.

赫尔贝克知道，研究小组不能仅仅依靠观测数据来证实自己的预感. They turned to a set of surveys conducted over the course of the past century. 这些调查的数据分布在世界各地的机构和博物馆中, from 巴西 to Europe. 这些数据有助于对Mico的分类修订和系统发育修订进行概述. Through laboratory analysis of these revisions, the research team members confirmed their survey data, and Schneider’s marmoset emerged as a new species.

“亚马逊流域真正的生物多样性被严重低估了，”Hrbek说. 他解释说，生物多样性在一定程度上是由亚马逊盆地地质的活力所驱动的. 地质破坏者有可能使以前连续的物种种群破碎, allowing them to diverge; they also have the potential to bring previously separated populations into contact with one another. As these species interact with one another, 它们有可能形成杂交群体，携带来自两组不同亲本物种的基因. 随着时间的推移, 这个杂交群体可能由于行为或物理障碍的出现而与亲本物种分离或隔离. If the hybrid group survives this divergence and its population becomes stable, it may eventually be described as a new species. “Although this mechanism is underappreciated, 除了传统机制之外，这对于创造多样性也很重要,他补充道.

数据收集允许分析和统计为阿拉瓜亚海豚的研究提供信息. Inia araguaiaensis photo courtesy Gabriel Santos-Melo.

All in a day’s work? Hrbek, the Cowles Distinguished Professor of Biology at 圣澳门金沙赌城线上游戏, is no stranger to new species. An ecologist and geneticist, Hrbek has more than two dozen new species discoveries to his name, 从巴西的河豚到委内瑞拉的黑瓦卡里，再到土耳其的小鱼. 赫贝克的职业生涯致力于探索我们世界的生物多样性，并倡导保护工作.

“There are 146 primate species and subspecies in Amazonia, 占全球灵长类动物多样性的20%，是世界上最多样化的灵长类动物群,” Hrbek and his team wrote in the 2021 article. “描述亚马逊森林砍伐弧线中灵长类物种的多样性和分布是必要的第一步 ... 在整个生物群落达到不可逆转的环境点之前，这为该地区的生物多样性保护提供了支持.”

Hrbek重新定义了这一点:“如果我们不知道这个物种的存在，我们怎么知道我们应该保护它?”

Of course, a question like this begets complexity in its answer. 经常, ecologists don’t know—can’t know—that a species exists because concrete, 经验数据尚未收集(因此Hrbek的团队在Juruena-Teles Pires省进行了调查)。. 但对赫贝克来说, it’s about more than the raw data: It’s about the assumption that we, as humans and scientists, know so little about the world’s true biodiversity.

Hrbek在他的实验室里使用数据驱动的方法来分析生物多样性的复杂性.

“根据该生态区域的已知物种，确定了保护工作并指定了保护区. 当我们思考时，就会决定在保护工作中增加或删除特定区域, 或者不要认为, a species exists somewhere else,他说. “There are entire ecological communities composed of these ‘cryptic species,’ and if we don’t know they exist or concern ourselves with their conservation, we could wipe them out entirely.”

Hrbek的研究议程是确保这种情况不会发生——至少不会比已经发生的更严重. 随着森林砍伐的弧线越来越接近亚马逊雨林的中心, 赫贝克已经将他的重点扩展到教育学生和社区，让他们了解保护工作的重要性以及缺乏保护的影响. He is a professor in the 澳门金沙线上赌博官网 First-Year Experience course “Climate: Changed,，他鼓励学生好奇地探索和批判性地解释支持气候变化论点的数据，以便得出他们自己的基于证据的结论, rather than simply accepting existing conclusions at face value.

“As humans, we have a tendency to seek simple solutions. But there are no simple solutions for anything. Complexity is underappreciated; to become comfortable with complexity, to be able to function within it, means you can approach science with lenses of analysis, 统计数据, and predictions—from data-driven perspectives.”

If complexity makes good science, it makes Tomas Hrbek a good scientist. And it means the future of complex biodiversity is in good hands.