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

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生理上适应环境变化能力的局限性。行为可以用来避免暴露在有压力的环境中，或者可以改变它来保存能量，以应对压力。本研究将研究生活在河口的幼鲨的这些行为过程，以及相应的生理机制。河口是海水和淡水混合的区域，是高度动态的环境，代表了鲨鱼的盐度压力梯度，但许多鲨鱼物种将这些栖息地作为幼崽的养育区，以避免捕食并获得食物资源。整个项目有三个具体目标：1。为了利用现代遥测技术研究鲨鱼的运动与盐度的关系，2 .在实验室中测量鲨鱼对野生鲨鱼特有的盐度变化以及更极端的盐度变化的生理反应；利用分子技术鉴定与盐胁迫反应相关的蛋白质，并将其作为过度盐胁迫的标志。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，研究人员将确定引起环境变化的行为反应的生理补偿限制的标记。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越来越大，人们对全球变化的复杂影响越来越认识。该项目将为加州大学戴维斯分校的一名研究生和几名本科生提供培训，结果将通过PI基于网络的蛋白质组学数据库发布。

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.