NSF/ESF WORKSHOP: Adaptation and Constraint in Avian Reproduction; Integrating Endocrinology and Ecology to be held in Heteren, the Netherlands on September 6-7, 2002

快节奏的环境变化目前威胁着鸟类的数量。为了预测鸟类将如何对这些变化作出反应，必须获得关于环境对个体生殖决定的影响的新知识（例如，是否、在何处和何时繁殖）以及生物体如何作为生理和行为系统对其环境作出反应。虽然一些物种在产卵日期、窝卵大小、交配系统等方面很灵活，但其他物种就不那么灵活了。如果科学家们要预测哪些种群能够调整或适应，以及适应的速度有多快，他们将需要比目前掌握的更多关于生殖决定背后机制的知识。获得这些知识将需要生殖内分泌学家、生理生态学家、行为生态学家、比较生物学家、种群生物学家和数量遗传学家（或者更简单地说，内分泌学家和生态学家）的专业知识。该奖项将支持一个探索性研讨会，该研讨会将召集约30名欧洲和北美科学家。研讨会将促进内分泌学家和生态学家之间的知识、技术和数据交流，以解决这一紧迫和热门的问题。它将反过来导致形成一个研究网络，该网络将促进国际合作和研究生和博士后的国际培训机会，包括来自科学界和发展中国家代表性不足的群体的学生。

Fast-paced environmental changes currently threaten bird populations. To predict how birds will respond to these changes it will be essential to acquire new knowledge about environmental influences on individual reproductive decisions (e.g., whether, where, and when to reproduce) and how organisms respond to their environments as physiological and behavioural systems. While some species are flexible with respect to laying date, clutch size, mating system, etc., others are less flexible. If scientists are to predict which populations will be able to adjust or adapt and how rapidly, they will require far greater knowledge of the mechanisms underlying reproductive decisions than they currently possess.Obtaining that knowledge will require the expertise of reproductive endocrinologists, physiological ecologists, behavioral ecologists, comparative biologists, population biologists, and quantitative geneticists (or, more simply, endocrinologists and ecologists). This award will support an exploratory workshop that will convene ~30 European and North American scientists. The workshop will foster the exchange of knowledge, techniques, and data between endocrinologists and ecologists to address this pressing and topical issue. It will lead in turn to the formation of a research network that will foster international collaborations and opportunities for international training of graduate and postdoctoral students including students from groups underrepresented in science and developing countries.