From Individual Interactions to Evolutionary and Ecological Dynamics

发展捕捉生物系统复杂性的理论对于理解当前的模式和预测未来的轨迹至关重要。该项目将开发一种新的理论方法，整合来自进化、生态和行为的模型，以预测相互作用的过程如何影响社会互动以及个体和种群水平的生殖和生存模式。然后，这一理论将被用来研究生物学中的两个关键问题：合作和冲突的进化和生态，以及环境变化对野生种群的影响。这种综合方法在生物学中具有广泛的相关性，并有助于更广泛地理解社会行为。研究有机体如何应对环境变化的理论也与保护和管理有关。例如，我们现在知道，商业渔业对野生种群具有进化、行为和生态影响。然而，现有的模型无法预测这些动态如何相互作用，影响人口及其管理。本科生、研究生和一名博士后研究员将接受培训，以使用和应用由此产生的理论和模型。为了超越学术界，将为课后科学教育项目开发展示理论在生物学和暑期实习中的作用的互动计算机程序，目标群体是传统上在科学和工程领域代表性较低的群体中的高中生。

Developing theory that captures the complexity of biological systems is essential for understanding current patterns and predicting future trajectories. This project will develop a novel theoretical approach that integrates models from evolution, ecology and behavior to predict how interacting processes affect social interactions and individual and population-level patterns of reproduction and survival. This theory will then be used to examine two key issues in biology: the evolution and ecology of cooperation and conflict and the effect of environmental change on wild populations.This integrative method has broad relevance within biology and for understanding social behavior more generally. Theory examining how organisms respond to environmental change is also relevant to conservation and management. For example, we now know that commercial fisheries have evolutionary, behavioral and ecological effects on wild populations. Yet, existing models cannot predict how these dynamics interact to affect populations and their management. Undergraduates, graduate students and one postdoctoral fellow will be trained to use and apply the resulting theory and models. To reach beyond academia, interactive computer programs demonstrating the role of theory in biology and summer internships will be developed for an after-school science education program that targets high school students from groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering.