CAREER: Integrating Behavior and Demography in Marine Mammal Conservation

在海洋哺乳动物保护中整合行为和人口学亚利桑那州立大学的Leah R.Gerber从理论上讲，行为和社会地位的个体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学中的定量技术相结合，研究繁殖行为对加利福尼亚州海湾海狮(Zalophus Calfornianus)灭绝风险的影响。格伯博士计划开发一个实证研究项目，以检验关于海狮的人口结构在多大程度上依赖于三个通常研究过的行为群体的假设--同种吸引、领地和父母投资。她还将开发一个理论研究项目，将野外收集的行为数据与模型联系起来，这些模型描述了海狮的人口学特征，更广泛地说，描述了受保护关注的种群。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，开发一个一般框架，将行为和这些行为的人口统计学后果整合到灭绝风险估计中。这项基础研究的结果将为从业者提供指导，帮助他们理解行为何时应该成为特定管理战略的重要组成部分。Gerber博士的研究将通过本科生培训和课程开发、研究生和博士后指导、向公众推广和交流成果以及通过促进与墨西哥本科生机构的研究和教学合作，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.