RUI: Collaborative Research: Impact of Environmental Disturbance on Animal Behavior: Mathematical Models and Field Populations

我们使用跨学科的方法来模拟动物行为；特别是，我们严格地将区隔常微分方程和矩阵模型与现场种群的行为数据联系起来。我们将使用数学模型和实地数据来研究白头鹰活动和气候变化对筑巢海鸟行为和生产力的影响。这项工作还将通过追求涉及本科生、研究生和研究人员的紧密跨学科垂直整合的范例，帮助减少数学和生物学之间的分裂。这项研究使我们能够评估以下科学问题：1)数学方程能否预测动物行为？换句话说，动物的行为在很大程度上是决定性的吗？2)数学方程能否准确预测人类活动和气候变化（如全球变暖）引起的行为变化？3)这些行为变化如何影响种群生存能力？在野外种群中预测动物行为的能力也可以应用于诸如疾病传播等实际问题，包括禽流感、沙门氏菌、志贺氏菌、西尼罗河热和莱姆病；减少鸟机撞击造成重大人命和财产损失的风险；野生动物管理。尽管在生物学研究中加速使用数学，但数学和学术生物学之间的分裂一直很难弥合，并且在本科阶段一直存在。研究人员将重要的数学技术带入生物课堂。数学和生物学的跨学科教学，以及一个本科研究团队，以前所未有的方式将数学和生物学结合起来。

We use an interdisciplinary methodology to model animal behavior; in particular, we rigorously connect compartmental ordinary differential equation and matrix models to behavior data from field populations. We will use mathematical models and field data to study the impact of bald eagle activity and climate change on the behavior and productivity of nesting seabirds. The work will also help reduce the schism between mathematics and biology by pursuing a paradigm of tight interdisciplinary vertical integration involving undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty.This research allows us to evaluate scientific questions such as: 1) Can mathematical equations predict animal behavior? In other words, is animal behavior largely deterministic? 2) Can mathematical equations accurately predict behavioral changes caused by human activity and climate change (such as global warming)? 3) How do such behavioral changes affect population viability? The ability to predict animal behavior in field populations also can be applied to such practical concerns as the spread of disease, including bird flu, Salmonella, Shigella, West Nile fever, and Lyme disease; reduction in the risk of bird-aircraft strikes, which cause major loss of human life and property; and wildlife management. Despite the accelerating use of mathematics in research biology, the schism between mathematics and academic biology has been very difficult to close, and is perpetuated at the undergraduate level. The investigators bring significant mathematical techniques into the biology classroom. Cross-disciplinary teaching by faculty from mathematics and biology, and an undergraduate research team, integrate mathematics and biology in an unprecedented way.