DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Behavioral Compensation for Limits to Ecophysiological Plasticity in Dynamic Environments

论文研究：动态环境中生态生理可塑性限制的行为补偿

• 批准号: 0709556
• 负责人: Dietmar Kültz
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-06-15 至 2009-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0709556&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Behavioral; Compensation; Limits

In this study researchers will examine the ways in which animals use behavior to compensate for limitations on their ability to adapt physiologically to changes in their environment. Behavior can be used to avoid exposure to stressful environments altogether, or it may be altered to conserve energy in order to deal with stress. This study will examine these behavioral processes, and the corresponding physiological mechanisms, in juvenile sharks living in estuaries. Estuaries, areas where seawater and freshwater mix, are highly dynamic environments that represent gradients of salinity stress for sharks, yet a number of shark species use these habitats as juvenile nursery areas to avoid predation and gain access to food resources. The overall project has three specific goals: 1. to examine the movements of sharks in relation to salinity using modern telemetry techniques, 2. to measure the physiological responses of sharks in the laboratory to salinity changes characteristic of sharks in the wild as well as to more extreme salinity changes, and 3. to use molecular techniques to identify proteins involved in the response to salinity challenge and that serve as markers of excessive salinity stress. It is anticipated that behavior plays a significant role in mitigating the effects of environmental change on sharks, and the researchers will identify markers of limits to physiological compensation that elicit behavioral responses to environmental change. This interdisciplinary approach will be widely applicable to other animals, especially considering expanding anthropogenic influences on the environment and growing awareness of the complex effects of global change. This project will contribute to training of one graduate and several undergraduate students at UC Davis, and results will be disseminated via the PI's web-based proteomics database.

在这项研究中，研究人员将研究动物如何利用行为来弥补它们在生理上适应环境变化的能力的局限性。行为可以用来完全避免暴露在压力环境中，或者可以通过改变行为来保存能量以应对压力。本研究将探讨这些行为过程，以及相应的生理机制，在幼年鲨鱼生活在河口。河口是海水和淡水混合的地区，是高度动态的环境，代表了鲨鱼的盐度压力梯度，但一些鲨鱼物种利用这些栖息地作为幼鱼保育区，以避免捕食和获得食物资源。整个项目有三个具体目标：1。利用现代遥测技术研究鲨鱼运动与盐度的关系，2.在实验室中测量鲨鱼对野生鲨鱼特有的盐度变化以及对更极端的盐度变化的生理反应; 3.利用分子生物学技术来鉴定与盐胁迫反应有关的蛋白质，并作为过度盐胁迫的标志物。预计行为在减轻环境变化对鲨鱼的影响方面起着重要作用，研究人员将确定生理补偿限制的标志，这些标志会引起对环境变化的行为反应。这种跨学科的方法将广泛适用于其他动物，特别是考虑到人类对环境的影响不断扩大，以及人们对全球变化的复杂影响的认识不断提高。这个项目将有助于在加州大学戴维斯分校的一个研究生和几个本科生的培训，结果将通过PI的基于网络的蛋白质组学数据库传播。