DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Costs of Parental Behavior, and Patterns of Paternal Effort and Paternity in the Pumpkinseed Sunfish (Lepomis gibbosus)

像其他翻车鱼一样，雄性南瓜子鱼在父母的照顾上投入了大量的精力。然而，由于卵子是在外部受精的，因此雄性采用替代生殖策略的机会之窗是开放的。这些“运动鞋”雄性不提供父母的照顾，而是在父母的巢穴里偷偷受精。由于父母的男性被戴绿帽子，他们的父母行为是寄生的，父权如何影响父母的照顾的问题是非常感兴趣的。利用行为观察，实验操作，和分子分析的父系在野生种群的南瓜子翻车鱼，本研究调查成功的运动鞋男性和探讨如何父亲的照顾是受父系在这个species.Intuitiveness，父系应该与父母的照顾，因为繁殖是昂贵的和投资无关的后代可能会被浪费。然而，理论模型表明，男性可能会调整他们的父母照顾，在一定条件下，而不是其他的低水平的亲子关系在他们的育雏。大多数检验这一理论的实证研究都是在鸟类身上进行的，结果好坏参半。使用鱼类的数据和实验可能比涉及实验操作的研究更容易管理。这项研究将是第一个使用分子技术来研究鱼的父系和父系护理之间的关系，并将研究被认为对这种关系至关重要的四个因素。这项研究预计不仅提供有价值的信息，父亲的照顾和替代生殖策略的鱼类，但也有不同的系统，可能会澄清我们的父亲的努力和父权的理解。

Like other sunfish, male pumpkinseeds invest substantially in parental care. However, because eggs are fertilized externally, a window of opportunity is open for males adopting an alternative reproductive tactic. These "sneaker" males do not provide parental care; instead they sneak fertilizations in the nest of parental males. Because parental males are cuckolded and their parental behavior is parasitized, the question of how paternity affects parental care is of substantial interest. Using behavioral observations, experimental manipulations, and molecular analyses of paternity in a wild population of pumpkinseed sunfish, this study investigates the success of sneaker males and explores how paternal care is affected by paternity in this species.Intuitively, paternity should be related to parental care, since reproduction is costly and investment in unrelated offspring may be wasted. However, theoretical models suggest that males may adjust their parental care in response to low levels of paternity within their brood under certain conditions but not others. Most of the empirical work testing this theory has been conducted with birds and has produced mixed results. Data and experiments using fish may prove more manageable to studies involving experimental manipulation. This study will be among the first to use molecular techniques to investigate the relationship between paternity and paternal care in a fish, and will also examine the four factors thought to be critical to such a relationship. This study is expected to provide not only valuable information regarding paternal care and alternative reproductive strategies in fishes, but also a different system that may clarify our understanding of paternal effort and paternity.