REU: The Ecology of Inducible Defenses: Competition, Predation, and Geographic Variation

针对捕食者的诱导防御策略在海洋、淡水和陆地生境中显然很重要；然而，只有在底栖海洋系统中，针对竞争对手的诱导防御才成为重要的相互作用机制。除了它们在生态上的重要性外，诱导防御也是分析表型塑料生物体内分配变化以及防御和攻击进化的有力工具。本研究将采用实验方法分析诱导防御的近端和终极机制，目标如下：1.确定对捕食者(脊椎)和竞争对手(匍匐)的诱导反应的特定大小的成本和收益，独立地和联合地进行。2.使用共同的碳货币(14C放射性同位素)，确定与对捕食者和竞争对手的诱导防御相关的高度局部化生长和生殖转移背后的移位模式。3.评估在两种不同的地理和生产力条件下对捕食者(脊椎动物)和竞争对手(地龙)的诱导防御的频率，最终目标是确定诱导防御的相对生物选择压力。

Inducible defensive strategies against predators are demonstrably important in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats; however, only in benthic marine systems have inducible defenses against competitors emerged as important mechanisms of interaction. In addition to their ecological importance, inducible defenses are powerful tools for the analysis of allocation shifts within phenotypically plastic organisms and of the evolution of defense and aggression. This investigation will employ an experimental approach to analyze proximate and ultimate mechanisms of inducible defenses with the following three goals: 1. To determine the size-specific costs and benefits of inducible responses to predators (spines) and competitors (stolons), independently and in combination. 2. To determine the translocation patterns underlying the highly localized growth and reproduction shifts associated with inducible defenses to predators and competitors using a common currency of carbon (14C radioisotope). 3. To assess the frequency of inducible defenses to predators (spines) and competitors (stolons) in two different geographic and productivity regimes with the ultimate goal of determining the relative biological selection pressures for the inducible defenses.