International Research Fellowship Program: Linking Resource Ecology with the Emergence of Cooperative Social Groups

0702391史密斯国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。史密斯博士与威廉·T。史密森热带研究所（Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute，STRI）该项目由国际科学与工程办公室的美洲项目提供支持。群居昆虫群体的特点是合作和大多数个体的不育性，代表了进化的基本转变之一：从个体寻求最大化自己的适应性到合作群体支持少数群体成员的繁殖。研究这种转变在大多数社会物种中是不可能的，因为所有的个体都生活在群体中。然而，包括新热带蜜蜂Megalopta在内的一些昆虫物种可以在独居和有蜂王和工蜂的社会群体之间任意切换。这种转变使得人们可以研究合作群体是如何从个人行为选择中产生的。巴拿马史密森热带研究所的50公顷森林动态研究地块正被用来测试两个假设，即资源的可用性和分布如何影响这一转变。第一个问题是，增加资源的可利用性是否会增加女性作为帮手和形成社会群体以获得间接健身收益的概率。第二个是资源质量的变化，特别是蛋白质含量，是否会影响个别女性的状况，使一些更有可能留在巢中作为非生殖工人。该项目利用了巴拿马STRI仅有的关键资源：50公顷的森林地块、综合花粉钥匙和树冠起重机。这些对生态学和行为的综合研究正在推进我们对合作群体如何从个人行为选择中产生的理解。

0702391SmithThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Adam R. Smith to work with Dr. William T. Wcislo at Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. Support for this project is provided by the Office of International Science and Engineering's Americas Program.Social insect colonies, characterized by cooperation and the sterility of most individuals, represent one of the fundamental transitions in evolution: from individuals each seeking to maximize their own fitness to cooperating groups supporting the reproduction of a few colony members. Studying this transition is impossible in most social species because all individuals live in groups. However some insect species, including the neotropical bee Megalopta, can facultatively switch between living solitarily and in social groups with a queen and worker(s). This switch allows the study of how cooperative groups emerge from individual behavioral choices. The 50 hectare forest dynamics study plot at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama is being used to test two hypotheses for how resource availability and distribution influence this transition. The first is whether increased resource availability increases the probability of females staying as helpers and forming social groups in order to gain indirect fitness benefits. The second is whether variance in resource quality, especially protein content, influences the condition of individual females such that some are more likely to remain in the nest as non-reproductive workers. The project exploits key resources only available at STRI in Panama: the 50 ha forest plot, comprehensive pollen key, and canopy cranes. These integrated studies of ecology and behavior are advancing our understanding of how cooperating groups emerge from individual behavioral choices.