Dissertation Research: Sexual Selection: Female Preference in the wild

野外对雌性偏好的研究。巴里·R·辛纳沃和瑞安·卡尔斯贝克女性在选择配偶时应该有选择性，因为女性通常比男性在生产和/或照顾后代上投入更多。当可供交配的雌性数量有限时，雄性应该争先恐后地接触雌性。尽管大量的证据支持这样的观点，即女性的选择可以深刻地影响自然种群的进化，但对于女性从选择性交配中受益的机制，人们几乎没有达成一致意见。雌性选择配偶可能是为了直接利益(领地质量、父母关爱、结婚礼物)和/或间接利益(雄性对优良基因的贡献)。直接和间接利益的相对重要性将在侧面斑点蜥蜴Uta stansburiana身上得到检验。在这种蜥蜴中，雄性蜥蜴建立的领地在热资源的可获得性上有很大的差异。通常情况下，控制最好领地的雄性也是体型较大的，原因如下。热资源对于蜥蜴来说是至关重要的，它们从太阳获取热量来维持较高的体温。高体温和高活动量促进高生长速度和体型。雄性领地上的热资源与栖息地中的岩石数量相关。交配者在领地质量和身体大小等其他身体属性上存在差异。为了了解直接和间接利益的重要性，领土质量和身体大小将在实验中分离。直接好处：对领地质量的实验操作将在两对相邻的雄性之间进行。在早春绘制出所有领地的地图后，岩石将从体型较大的雄性领地中移走，并存放在较小雄性邻居的相邻领地上。这种操作将有效地逆转通常存在于自然界中的巨大男性体型和高质量领土之间的相关性。女性领土位置的变化将作为领土质量变化的函数来衡量，领土质量变化衡量的是女性对领土质量直接好处的偏好。衡量女性的生育成功将检验女性在高质量领土上积累的直接利益。雌性繁殖成功的方面将包括：母本的状况和存活，产生的后代数量，后代的大小和条件，后代随后的生长和存活，雌性产卵的温度特性。间接好处：配偶选择的间接好处与高质量配偶传递给雌性后代的基因有关。在这种情况下，雌性可能会选择体型较大的雄性，这些雄性可能携带有可能提高后代成熟率或存活率的基因。在这个物种中，雌性与许多雄性体型不同的配偶交配。在自然界中，DNA亲子鉴定方法将被用来确定雌性后代的父亲。将测量大小雄性后代的表现。此外，雌性将在实验室与大小雄性交配，在后代被释放到自然界的试验田后，将跟踪个体后代的表现。最后，将进行择偶试验，以评估雌性是否表现出对雄性体型的强烈偏好。区域质量的田间实验和实验室实验将提供强有力的检验，以检验区域质量的直接效益和优良基因的间接效益对雌性后代生长和存活的相对贡献。

Studies of female preference in the wild. Barry R. Sinervo and Ryan CalsbeekFemales should be selective in their choice of mate, since females typically invest more in the production and/or care of offspring than do males. When there are a limited number of females available for mating, males should vie for access to females. Though abundant evidence supports the notion that female choice can profoundly affect the evolution of natural populations, there is little agreement regarding the mechanisms by which females benefit from mating selectively. Females may choose mates for direct benefits (territory quality, parental care, nuptial gifts), and/or indirect benefits (the contribution of good genes by the male). The relative importance of direct and indirect benefits will be tested in the side-blotched lizard, Uta stansburiana. In this lizard, males set up territories that vary greatly in the availability of thermal resources. Normally, males that control the best territory also are of large size for the following reason. Thermal resources are crucial for lizards, which obtain heat for maintaining high body temperature from the sun. High body temperature and activity promote high growth rate and body size. The thermal resources on a males territory are correlated with the amount of rock in the habitat. The mates vary in territory quality and in other physical attributes such as body size. To understand the importance of direct and indirect benefits, territory quality and body size will be experimentally uncoupled. Direct Benefits: Experimental manipulations of territory quality will be performed between pairs of neighboring males. After all territories are mapped in early spring, rock will be removed from the territories of large males and deposited on adjacent territories of their smaller male neighbors. This manipulation will effectively reverse the correlation of large male body-size and high-quality territories that is normally present in nature. Changes in the location of female territories will be measured as a function of changes in territory quality, which measures female preference for direct benefits of territory quality. Measuring female's reproductive success will test for the direct benefits accrued by females on high quality territories. Aspects of female reproductive success will include: the condition and survival of the female parent, numbers of offspring produced, size and condition of offpsring, subsequent growth and survival of offspring, The thermal properties nest sites where females lay eggs will also be measured.Indirect Benefits: The indirect benefits of mate choice are associated with genes that a high quality mate passes on to the female's progeny. In this case, females would be expected to select large males which are likely to carry genes that might enhance progeny growth rate to maturity or perhaps survival. In this species, the female mates with many mates which can vary in male body size. In nature, DNA paternity methods will be used to determine the father of each progeny in the female's clutch. The performance of progeny from large and small males will be measured. In addition, females will be mated in the laboratory to large and small males and the performance of individual progeny will be followed after the progeny are released onto experimental plots in nature. Finally, mate choice trials will be carried out to assess whether females exhibit a strong preference for male body size.The combination field experiments of territory quality and laboratory experiments will provide a strong test of the relative contribution of direct benefits of territory quality and indirect benefits of good genes for the growth and survival of the female's progeny.