CAREER: The Ecology of Information in Predator-prey Interactions: Testing Mechanisms by which Informed Prey Avoid their Predators in Space and Time

职业：捕食者-被捕食者相互作用中的信息生态学：测试知情猎物在空间和时间上躲避捕食者的机制

• 批准号: 0746985
• 负责人: Kenneth Schmidt
• 金额: $ 59.99万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-03-15 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0746985&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Ecology; Information; Predator; prey

Optimal decision making by organisms relies upon the acquisition of information regarding relevant ecological conditions (e.g., location of predators, qualities of prospective mates). The better informed the individual, the better it can match its behavior to its present or anticipated future circumstances. These adjustments in turn may be important drivers or regulators of ecological interactions. Therefore, to fully grasp ecological complexity, ecologists must understand the sources of information available to organisms (e.g., past experiences, newly acquired information), how information changes an organism's behavior, and the consequences of information use for other organisms. The research to be performed will investigate these questions within the context of how breeding songbirds acquire information about predation risk. It combines long-term observational data on individually marked animals, experimental manipulation of predators in time and space, and computer simulations to explore the role of environmental predictability on information use and, hence, on possible responses to global change. The proposed research will facilitate undergraduate research that targets underrepresented groups through programs such as McNair Scholars and Howard Hughes Fellows. It will develop a new initiative to provide science education through reflection and active research experience to non-science majors. This initiative will occur within a curriculum designed to groom students for professions that communicate the science of the natural world to non-scientists. Through proposed education assessments, this initiative would represent perhaps the first attempt to quantify the role of reflection and research experience on students' abilities to effectively convey the nature of science through writing.

生物体的最佳决策依赖于获得有关生态条件的信息（例如，捕食者的位置，未来配偶的素质）。 一个人越了解情况，就越能使自己的行为与当前或预期的未来环境相匹配。 这些调整反过来可能是生态相互作用的重要驱动因素或调节因素。 因此，为了充分掌握生态的复杂性，生态学家必须了解生物体可用的信息来源（例如，过去的经验，新获得的信息），信息如何改变生物体的行为，以及信息使用对其他生物体的影响。 将要进行的研究将调查这些问题的背景下，如何繁殖鸣禽获取有关捕食风险的信息。 它结合了对个别标记动物的长期观测数据、对捕食者在时间和空间上的实验性操纵以及计算机模拟，以探讨环境可预测性对信息使用的作用，从而探讨对全球变化的可能反应。 拟议中的研究将促进本科生的研究，目标是通过计划，如麦克奈尔学者和霍华德休斯研究员代表性不足的群体。 它将制定一项新的倡议，通过反思和积极的研究经验，以非科学专业提供科学教育。 这一举措将发生在一个课程，旨在培养学生的专业，沟通自然世界的科学，以非科学家。 通过拟议的教育评估，这一举措可能是第一次尝试量化反思和研究经验对学生通过写作有效传达科学性质的能力的作用。