CAREER: Integrating Behavior and Demography in Marine Mammal Conservation

利亚·r·格伯，亚利桑那州立大学理论上，个体行为和社会地位的差异可以决定种群变化的速度，从而决定濒危物种在现实世界中面临的威胁。Leah Gerber博士将把行为生态学的理论与人口统计学的定量技术结合起来，研究加利福尼亚湾加利福尼亚海狮（Zalophus californianus）的繁殖行为对灭绝风险的影响。格伯博士计划开展一个实证研究项目，以检验有关海狮种群数量在多大程度上依赖于三种被普遍研究的行为——同向吸引、领地性和亲代投资——的假设。她还将开发一个理论研究项目，将在该领域收集的行为数据与描述海狮人口统计的模型联系起来，并更广泛地描述受保护的种群。最后，她将使用经验数据结合她之前在风险评估方面的工作，开发一个将行为和这些行为的人口后果整合到灭绝风险估计中的一般框架。这项基础研究的结果将为实践者提供指导，帮助他们理解行为何时应该成为特定管理策略的重要组成部分。Gerber博士的研究将通过本科培训和课程开发、研究生和博士后指导、向公众宣传和交流成果以及促进与墨西哥本科院校的研究和教学合作，产生更广泛的影响。

Integrating Behavior and Demography in Marine Mammal Conservation Leah R. Gerber, Arizona State UniversityIndividual differences in behavior and social status can in theory determine the rate of population change and thus the threat that imperiled species face in the real world. Dr. Leah Gerber will integrate theories from behavioral ecology with quantitative techniques in demography to examine the effects of reproductive behavior on extinction risk for California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in the Gulf of California. Dr. Gerber plans to develop an empirical research program to test hypotheses regarding the degree to which the demography of sea lions depends on three commonly studied groups of behavior-conspecific attraction, territoriality and parental investment. She will also develop a theoretical research program that links behavioral data collected in the field to models that describe the demography of sea lions and more generally of populations of conservation concern. Finally, she will use empirical data combined with her previous work on risk assessment to develop a general framework for integrating behaviors and the demographic consequences of these behaviors into estimates of extinction risk. Findings from this basic research will provide practitioners with guidelines for understanding when behavior should be an important component of a particular management strategy. Dr. Gerber's research will achieve broader impacts through undergraduate training and curriculum development, graduate and post-doctoral mentorship, outreach and communication of results to the general public and by fostering research and teaching collaborations with Mexican undergraduate institutions.