Predator-induced morphological defenses of marine zooplankton

智力优势-捕食者引起的猎物防御结构的变化发生在不同的生物体和生境中。奇怪的是，对参考数据库的搜索没有发现海洋浮游动物发生这种变化的报告。相比之下，捕食者引起的形态变化的报告有很多淡水浮游动物，底栖海洋动物和浮游植物。PI实验室的实验已经证明，捕食者会引起贝氏面盘幼虫外壳的变化，笼中的捕食者会在没有直接接触的情况下引起变化，而这种事先暴露于捕食者的情况随后会降低面盘幼虫的脆弱性。这项研究将这些研究扩展到各种海洋浮游动物。研究集中在四个猎物-捕食者的相互作用：腹足类面盘动物作为猎物与螃蟹zoeas作为捕食者，海胆plutei，螃蟹zoeas，桡足类无节幼体和桡足类作为猎物与鱼类作为捕食者。对于每一个猎物-捕食者组合，要检验的假设是：（1）假定的防御结构在对来自捕食者、受伤的同种猎物的刺激的反应中不同地发展，和（2）先前暴露于捕食者降低了脆弱性。如果这些结果是肯定的，将测试另外两个假设。(3)暴露于捕食者后的脆弱性降低涉及诱导防御形态（如直接观察捕食者的攻击和处理捕食者暴露和捕食者幼稚的猎物和猎物的逃跑所示）。(4)暴露，诱导猎物形态的变化，导致猎物生长缓慢。如果假设1的结果对一个猎物物种是否定的，则将测试其他种类的猎物和捕食者。诱导形态防御传达的信息，捕食者-猎物在该领域的相互作用，捕食风险的变化，降低死亡率和降低死亡率的变化，什么功能是有效的防御捕食者，和权衡防御。此外，如果诱导防御是常见的，忽视防御和他们的权衡将导致错误设计的实验室实验和误解的数据。另外，如果捕食者引起的防御在海洋浮游动物中被证明是罕见的，那么海洋浮游动物的风险以及防御的成本和收益与淡水浮游动物不同。更广泛的影响--该项目包括研究生的论文研究，并支持本科生的研究。该研究将涉及由闪烁奖学金支持的本科生，在星期五港实验室（FHL）的一个项目中，该项目旨在将代表性不足的少数民族学生带入海洋科学研究。指导本科生的研究与PI联合将提高研究生的经验，作为一名教师。PI和学生还将在FHL为公众以及国家和国际会议举办的讲座和开放日上展示成果。PI将把这项研究的结果和新问题纳入幼虫生态学课程。来自国内和国际许多机构的学生在FHL学习这门课程。形态诱导防御的频率或稀缺性将进一步提出问题的刺激和有效性的反应在海洋浮游动物，生活在地球上最大的栖息地，遇到不同种类的捕食者，并提供翔实的对比与淡水浮游动物的特异性。

Intellectual Merit -- Predator-induced changes in the defensive structures of prey occur in diverse organisms and habitats. Curiously, a search of reference data bases reveals no reports of such changes for marine zooplankton. In contrast, reports of predator-induced morphological changes are numerous for freshwater zooplankton, benthic marine animals, and phytoplankton. Experiments in the PI's lab have demonstrated that predators induce changes in shells of the planktonic veligers, that caged predators induce the change without direct contact, and that this prior exposure to a predator subsequently decreases vulnerability of the veligers. This research extends these studies to diverse kinds of marine planktonic animals. The study concentrates on four prey-predator interactions: gastropod veligers as prey with crab zoeas as predators; echinoid plutei, crab zoeas, and copepod nauplii and copepodids as prey with fish as predators. For each prey-predator combination, the hypotheses to be tested are (1) presumed defensive structures develop differently in response to stimuli from predators, injured conspecific prey, and (2) prior exposure to predators reduces vulnerability. If these results are positive, two other hypotheses will be tested. (3) The reduced vulnerability following exposure to predators involves the induced defensive morphology (as indicated by direct observations of predators' attacks and handling of predator-exposed and predatornaive prey and the escapes by prey). (4) Exposure that induces changes in prey morphology results in slower prey growth. If results for hypothesis 1 are negative for a prey species, additional kinds of prey and predators will be tested. Induced morphological defenses convey information about predator-prey interactions in the field, variation in predation risk, processes that reduce mortality and reduce variation in mortality, what features are effective defenses against predators, and trade-offs for defenses. Also, if induced defenses are common, ignoring the defenses and their trade-offs will result in incorrectly designed laboratory experiments and misinterpretation of data. Alternatively, if predator-induced defenses prove to be rare among marine planktonic animals, then the risks for marine zooplankton and the costs and benefits of defenses differ from those for freshwater zooplankton.Broader Impacts -- The project includes a graduate student's dissertation research and supports research by undergraduates. The research will involve an undergraduate supported by a Blinks Fellowship, in a program at the Friday Harbor Laboratories (FHL) that is designed to bring students in underrepresented minorities into research in the marine sciences. Mentoring of undergraduate research jointly with the PI will enhance the graduate student's experience as a teacher. The PI and students will also present results in the lectures and open houses at FHL for the general public and at national and international meetings. The PI will incorporate result and new questions from this research into courses in larval ecology. Students from many institutions nationally and internationally take this course at FHL. The frequency or scarcity of morphological induced defenses will raise further questions about the specificity of stimuli and effectiveness of responses in marine zooplankton, which live in the largest habitat on earth, encounter diverse kinds of predators, and provide informative contrasts with freshwater zooplankton.