Understanding a major global divergence in tropical life history strategies

了解热带生活史策略的全球主要差异

• 批准号: 0841764
• 负责人: Thomas Martin
• 金额: $ 60万
• 依托单位: University of Montana
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-15 至 2013-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0841764&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Understanding; major; global; divergence; tropical

Life history attributes such as rates of birth, death, growth, and development typically are related in predictable ways that support distinct, but successful, life styles. Typically, birth rate and adult longevity are negatively correlated and development time and life-time survival are positively correlated. Slow development and low fecundity are thought to be essential to a life history that includes long maximum life spans and are thought to have their effects through improving the health and survival of offspring. However, tropical birds of Asia appear to violate this pattern, being similarly long-lived to the birds of the New World tropics, but having higher fecundity and development rate. Therefore, low fecundity and slow development may not be necessary for high offspring quality and long life. This study will use extensive and detailed comparative surveys, complemented with some field experimentation, to examine possible environmental causes of the higher fecundity and faster development of 25-30 bird species in Sabah, Malaysia. Additionally, the work will examine the extent to which fecundity and development rate determine offspring immune function and thereby determine adult longevity. This work will provide new insight into the roles of development rate and fecundity in the ability to fight pathogens through immune function and of the influence of this and other indicators of offspring quality on longevity. It also will improve understanding of the environmental causes of variation in rates of birth, death, and development and their interrelationships. These rates greatly influence the vulnerability of populations to environmental change and can significantly aide our ability to sustain biodiversity in North America, as well as world-wide. Finally, this work includes substantial scientific training of many undergraduate and graduate students, including members of groups currently underrepresented in science.

出生率、死亡率、生长率和发育率等生活史属性通常以可预测的方式相关，支持独特但成功的生活方式。通常，出生率和成人寿命呈负相关，而发育时间和终生存活率呈正相关。缓慢的发育和低生育力被认为对于包括较长的最大寿命的生命史至关重要，并且被认为通过改善后代的健康和生存而产生影响。然而，亚洲的热带鸟类似乎违反了这一模式，它们的寿命与新世界热带的鸟类相似，但具有更高的繁殖力和发育速度。因此，低繁殖力和缓慢发育可能不是高后代质量和长寿命所必需的。 这项研究将采用广泛而详细的比较调查，并辅以一些实地实验，以研究马来西亚沙巴州 25-30 种鸟类繁殖力较高和发育较快的可能环境原因。此外，这项工作还将研究繁殖力和发育速度在多大程度上决定后代的免疫功能，从而决定成年寿命。 这项工作将为了解发育速度和繁殖力在通过免疫功能对抗病原体的能力中的作用以及这一指标和其他后代质量指标对寿命的影响提供新的见解。它还将增进对出生率、死亡率和发育率变化的环境原因及其相互关系的理解。这些比率极大地影响了人口对环境变化的脆弱性，并可以极大地帮助我们维持北美乃至全世界生物多样性的能力。 最后，这项工作包括对许多本科生和研究生进行大量的科学培训，其中包括目前在科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员。