Phenotypic plasticity in life history and behavioural syndromes in short lived, iteroparous small mammals.

短命、迭代产小型哺乳动物的生命史和行为综合征的表型可塑性。

• 批准号: 135025228
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Jana Eccard
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arbeitsgruppe Tierökologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2008-12-31 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/135025228?language=en
• 关键词: Phenotypic; plasticity; life; history; behavioural

If the environment varies between generations, adaptation to environmental conditions is difficult. In seasonal environments, short-lived animals may be born into spring/summer or autumn. Spring/summer-born animals mature quickly, their competition with conspecifics for reproduction is high, and life span is rather short. Their offspring, in contrast, may be born into autumn, have to survive the winter, mature at a relatively high age and have a relatively long life-span compared to summer animals. Further, in early spring competition with conspecifics is low. We assume, that with these different life-histories also different behavioural types have evolved, which facilitate successful reproduction in competitive situations or improve winter survival. We showed that in common vole populations, a short-lived, iteroparous animal in a seasonal environment, behavioural profiles measured in spring differ from those measured in summer and autumn. The measured variables are constant over the life of individuals. They do not differ between sexes, with the exception of higher physical activity in males. Behavioural differences measured between spring/summer animals in fine lab remained observable also in a field situation, indicating the relevance of behavioural profiles beyond the laboratory environment. On the other hand, behavioural types were flexible in animals which were transferred from summer to an artificial winter. In future experiments we want to conduct this experiment with winter animals transferred to artificial summers, to test whether we observe a general seasonal mismatch in the ontogeny of behaviour, or a season specific phenomenon. We want to further investigate the fitness of animals in mixed populations of different behavioural types in semi-natural enclosures, using automated radiotelemetry, life-capture and molecular paternity analyses. The result of our research will help us to understand the effects of variability in life histories, seasonally variable environments and different pace-of-life syndromes on the behaviour of animals.

如果世代之间的环境不同，适应环境条件是困难的。在季节性环境中，短命动物可能出生在春季/夏季或秋季。春季/夏季出生的动物成熟迅速，它们与同种物种的繁殖竞争激烈，寿命相当短。与此相反，它们的后代可能在秋天出生，必须在冬天生存，在相对较高的年龄成熟，并且与夏季动物相比寿命相对较长。此外，在早春与同种的竞争是低的。我们假设，随着这些不同的生活史，也进化出不同的行为类型，这有助于在竞争环境中成功繁殖或提高冬季生存率。我们发现，在常见的田鼠种群，一个短暂的，iteroparous动物在一个季节性的环境中，在春季测量的行为配置文件不同于在夏季和秋季测量。测量的变量在个人的一生中是恒定的。除了男性的体力活动量较高外，男女之间没有差别。春季/夏季动物在精细的实验室之间测量的行为差异仍然可以观察到，也在现场的情况下，表明超出实验室环境的行为配置文件的相关性。另一方面，从夏季转移到人工冬季的动物的行为类型是灵活的。在未来的实验中，我们希望用转移到人工夏季的冬季动物进行这个实验，以测试我们是否观察到行为个体发育中的一般季节性不匹配，或者季节特定现象。我们希望进一步研究在半自然围栏中不同行为类型的混合种群中动物的适应性，使用自动无线电遥测，生命捕获和分子亲子鉴定分析。我们的研究结果将有助于我们了解生活史的变化，季节性变化的环境和不同的生活节奏综合征对动物行为的影响。