The balance of selection on the growth trajectories of fishes

成长是个人健康的基础。由于繁殖力和存活率，这两个适合的主要组成部分，通常随着尺寸的增加而增加，在没有权衡的情况下，生长应该被生理和系统发育限制所允许的最大值所驱动。除了少数例外，现场证据的优势似乎表明，在鱼类的早期生活史中，选择了更大的尺寸和更快的生长速度。与此相反，许多物种在生长过程中都发生了局部适应，这表明生长速度并没有均匀地进化到最大值。早期生活史中对快速生长的普遍选择显然与同样普遍的观察相矛盾，即次极大的生长速度是适应性的。有两种假设可以解决这个难题。1)早期生活史的生长不具有可遗传的遗传基础；2)早期生长确实有遗传基础，而且生长的延迟成本导致在整个生活史上对生长速度的平衡选择。本项目将使用Menidia Menidia作为模型物种来测试这些相互竞争的假设。这项工作将结合野外采集、实验室实验和定量遗传建模来评估整个生活史中生长的遗传基础和适应性结果。1)从范围中心估计鱼类整个生活史的生长和繁殖力的遗传协方差和遗传力。2)在整个生命周期中使用多个样本的耳石来估计该种群的大小和生长选择。3)将利用表型操纵个体和来自三个当地适应种群的个体的组合来评估生长的短期和长期成本。将早期生活史中的过程与整个生命的适应性结果联系起来，将从根本上改变我们对幼虫生物学和控制招募的复杂过程的看法。智力优势——该项目将在整个生活史上跟踪大小和生长的选择，并评估这些性状的数量遗传基础。通过将ELH过程与生命后期的繁殖成功联系起来，该研究将有助于解决鱼类早期生活史中的一个主要矛盾。更广泛的影响——越来越多的证据表明，严重捕捞的鱼类种群已经根据捕捞选择而进化，最近的证据表明，这些适应可能会减缓捕捞死亡率下降后种群恢复的速度。PI计划与政府渔业科学家合作，利用该项目产生的模型和信息来制定进化上可持续的捕捞战略。PI还将通过哈德逊河基金会（Hudson River Foundation）的系列研讨会向公众展示结果，定期参加研讨会的听众包括渔民和环保人士。所有原始数据将通过PIs石溪网站免费提供，用于研究和教育。PI全年指导不同群体的本科生。目前80%的学生来自传统上代表性不足的群体。该项目将为这些学生及其后继者提供高速摄影和运动分析、养鱼和耳石制备方面的实践培训，以及收集和识别各种近岸鱼类的机会。该研究的部分内容将成为两篇博士论文的基础，其中一篇是由Kestrel Perez撰写的，他开始通过AGEP项目与PI合作，从事少数民族本科生的研究，后来就读于石溪大学的海洋科学博士课程。所有学生都将被鼓励参加与他们的研究相关的会议。对拟议项目的财政支持将使PI能够继续提供诸如此类的研究机会。所要求的设备将有助于石溪生物海洋学和海洋生态学的研究基础设施。

Growth is fundamental to an individual's fitness. Since fecundity and survival, the two primary components of fitness, typically increase with size, in the absence of trade-offs, growth should be driven to the maximum allowed by physiological and phylogenetic constraints. With few exceptions, the preponderance of field evidence seems to indicate selection for larger size and faster growth in the early life history of fishes. In contrast to this, local adaptation in growth occurs in many species, indicating that growth rates do not uniformly evolve to their maximum. Pervasive selection for fast growth in the early life history apparently contradicts the equally common observation that submaximal growth rates are adaptive. Two hypotheses may resolve this conundrum. 1) Growth during the early life history does not have a heritable genetic basis; 2) Early growth does have a genetic basis and there are delayed costs of growth that result in balancing selection on growth rates when viewed over the entire life history. This project will use Menidia menidia as a model species to test these competing hypotheses. The work will combine field collections, laboratory experiments, and quantitative genetic modeling to evaluate the genetic basis for, and fitness consequences of, growth throughout the life history. 1) The genetic covariance and heritability of growth and fecundity throughout the life history will be estimated for fish from the center of the range. 2) Selection on size and growth will be estimated for this population using otoliths from multiple samples throughout the life span. 3) The short and long term costs of growth will be evaluated using a combination of phenotypically-manipulated individuals and individuals from three locally adapted populations. Connecting processes acting in the early life history with fitness consequences throughout life will fundamentally change the way we think about larval biology and the complex processes governing recruitment.Intellectual Merit --The project will track selection on size and growth over the whole life history and evaluate the quantitative genetic basis for these characters. By connecting processes in the ELH to reproductive success late in life, the study will help resolve a major contradiction in the early life history of fishes. Broader Impacts--There is mounting evidence that heavily exploited fish stocks have evolved in response to harvest selection and recent evidence suggests that these adaptations may slow population recovery following reductions in fishing mortality. In collaboration with government fisheries scientists, the PI plans to use the models and information resulting from this project to develop evolutionarily sustainable harvest strategies. The PI will also present results to the general public through the Hudson River Foundation's seminar series, regularly attended by a diverse audience including, fishermen and environmentalists. All raw data will be made freely available for use in research and education through the PIs Stony Brook website. The PI mentors a diverse group of undergraduates throughout the year. 80% of the present cohort of students are from traditionally underrepresented groups. The project will provide these students and their successors hands-on training in high speed photography and motion analysis, fish husbandry, and otolith preparation, as well as opportunities to collect and identify of a variety of nearshore fishes. Parts of the research will form the basis of two PhD dissertations, including one by Kestrel Perez who began working with the PI through the AGEP program for minority undergraduate research and has since enrolled in Stony Brook's PhD program in Ocean Sciences. All students will be encouraged to participate in meetings relevant to their research. Financial support for the proposed project will allow the PI to continue to provide research opportunities such as these. The equipment requested will contribute to the research infrastructure for biological oceanography and marine ecology at Stony Brook.