Special Feature: Long-Term Studies of Mammals
Special Feature: Long-Term Studies of Mammals
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专题：哺乳动物的长期研究
DOI：
10.1093/jmammal/gyx065
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Smith, J.E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Smith, J.E.
大多数食肉动物（哺乳动物食肉目的成员）是难以捉摸和长寿的，因此需要长期的研究来了解它们的基本生物学，并最终保护它们。在这里，我们回顾的例子，丰富的信息的社会系统，生态生理学和生态的群居，陆生，食肉的食肉动物（以下简称食肉动物）所产生的长期实地研究的自由生活，个别可识别的食肉动物。我们的综合产生了关于有利于合作的进化力量和塑造社会动态的生态力量的关键见解。亲子关系的遗传分配允许阐明跨越多代的自然群体的生殖偏斜的程度。对个体生命周期的跟踪揭示了介导生殖抑制和扩散的潜在生理、行为和生态机制。长期的研究允许全面了解内在和外在因素，包括与人类的冲突，调节食肉动物种群的方式。长期研究还提供了在人口激增和全球气候变化的情况下保护食肉动物所需的关键基线信息。值得注意的是，许多保护问题在时间尺度上展开，只有长期数据才能解决。虽然我们还没有从长期的实地研究中充分利用丰富的信息，但这些有价值的知识库已经产生了关于哺乳动物食肉动物的无数见解，这些见解是在较短时间内进行的研究所无法获得的。
Most carnivorans (members of the mammalian order Carnivora) are elusive and long lived, so long-term studies are required to understand their basic biology and, ultimately, to conserve them. Here, we review examples of the wealth of information about the social systems, ecophysiology, and ecology of gregarious, terrestrial, carnivorous carnivorans (hereafter, carnivores) generated by long-term field studies of free-living, individually recognizable carnivores. Our synthesis yields key insights about the evolutionary forces favoring cooperation and ecological forces shaping social dynamics. The genetic assignment of parentage permits elucidation of the extent of reproductive skew in natural populations spanning multiple generations. Tracking of individuals across their life spans reveals underlying physiological, behavioral, and ecological mechanisms mediating reproductive suppression and dispersal. Long-term studies permit a comprehensive understanding of the ways in which intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including conflict with humans, regulate carnivore populations. Long-term studies also provide crucial baseline information required for the conservation of carnivores in the face of burgeoning human populations and global climate change. Notably, many conservation problems unfold on timescales only addressable with long-term data. Although we have yet to exploit the full wealth of information from long-term field studies, these valuable repositories have already yielded myriad insights about mammalian carnivores that would be unobtainable from studies conducted over shorter timescales.