LTREB: Collaborative Research: Responses to Unpredictable Environmental Events: An Integrated Study of Stress Physiology, Environmental Cues, and Reproductive Success.

大多数生物所处的环境在空间和时间上都是变化的。环境条件往往变化迅速，很少或根本没有预警。动物的生存和繁殖取决于它们对这些不可预知事件的感知能力，以及迅速而适当地调整生理和行为的能力。应激反应是一种机制，通过这种机制，动物可以改变行为和生理，以应对环境中不可预测的事件。每年5月，当白冠麻雀返回山区繁殖地时，天气状况极其难以预测，新下的雪可能会暂时覆盖所有可用的觅食区域。鸟类的行为会迅速而剧烈地改变，以应对这些风暴。它们经常放弃繁殖地，暂时迁移到较低海拔地区（即兼性纵向迁徙），那里的天气条件不那么恶劣，食物也比较充足。本提案包括三种研究。首先，在一系列的实地研究中，将探讨食物供应、身体状况、应激生理与兼性海拔迁移之间的关系。其次，在实验室中，这些因素（食物供应、身体状况、应激生理和活动）之间的相互作用将在更严格的控制条件下进行测试。第三，繁殖成功将被测量，允许评估环境，生理和适应性之间的功能关系。更广泛的影响：本研究将作出几个一般性贡献。它将为一些本科生和研究生提供研究和培训的机会。PIs非常强调本科生参与研究，这个项目将反映这一点。该项目的几个方面（利用无线电遥测技术确定积雪变化、食物供应、领土质量、鸟巢位置和鸟类个体定位）非常适合本科项目。该项目也适合本科生参与实验室研究；在圈养研究中，这些鸟是非常温顺的。作为一个综合性的合作项目，它将促进大学之间的互动，并有助于开发生理学和行为学研究的领域桥梁方法。这项研究还将用于维护一个关于该物种繁殖生物学的长期数据库，该数据库由马丁·l·莫顿于1968年创建。有了关于环境条件（雪深、积雪、温度）、身体状况和繁殖时间的持续数据，我们可以研究可能受全球气候变化影响的种群特征的长期趋势，如总体种群繁殖产出或年际成虫存活率。

Breuner Hahn Abstract Most organisms occupy environments that vary in space and time. Environmental conditions often change rapidly, with little or no advance warning. Survival and reproduction depend on animals' ability to perceive these unpredictable events and to adjust physiology and behavior quickly and appropriately. The stress response is one mechanism by which animals can redirect behavior and physiology to cope with unpredictable events in the environment. When white-crowned sparrows return to their mountain breeding grounds each May, weather conditions are extremely unpredictable, and fresh snow can temporarily cover all available foraging areas. The birds' behavior can change rapidly and dramatically in response to these storms. They often abandon breeding territories and move temporarily to lower elevations (i.e., make facultative altitudinal migrations), where weather conditions are less severe and food is available. This proposal includes three kinds of studies. First, in a series of field studies the relationships between food availability, body condition, stress physiology and facultative altitudinal migration will be investigated. Second, in the laboratory, interactions between these factors (food availability, body condition, stress physiology and activity) will be tested under more controlled conditions. Third, reproductive success will be measured, permitting the evaluation of the functional relationships among the environment, physiology, and fitness. Broader impacts: This study will make several general contributions. It will provide research and training opportunities for several undergraduates and graduate students. The PIs place strong emphasis on undergraduate involvement in research, and this project will reflect that. Several aspects of this project (determination of changes in snow cover, food availability, territory quality, nest location and individual localization of birds using radiotelemetry) are ideal for undergraduate projects. The project also lends itself to involvement of undergraduates in laboratory studies; the birds are extremely tractable in captive studies. As an integrative, collaborative project, it will foster interactions among universities, and help to develop field-bridging approaches to the study of physiology and behavior. This study will also serve to maintain a long-term database on the breeding biology of this species, started by Martin L. Morton in 1968. With the continuing data on environmental conditions (snow depth, snow cover, temperature), body condition, and timing of reproduction, we can examine long-term trends in features of the population that may be affected by global climate change, such as overall population reproductive output or inter-year adult survivorship.