Conflict, Social Behavior and Evolution

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。两性之间在受精控制方面的冲突预计在生物中广泛存在，但其进化后果仍然知之甚少，特别是在脊椎动物中。水禽有复杂的繁殖系统，包括基于精致的雄性羽毛和求爱表现的雌性伴侣偏好，以及雌性选择的伴侣以外的雄性不请自来的繁殖尝试。母鸭表现出与雄鸭强制共同进化的抵抗行为和解剖结构。鸭子是研究性冲突进化和生殖结构进化的理想对象。该项目研究了不同生态、领土和繁殖系统的鸭种的生殖形态如何随季节、年龄和社会环境而变化。本项目初步结果表明，雄性竞争在水禽生殖形态的进化中起着重要作用，雄性生殖形态随年龄和条件的不同以及不同繁殖制度的种间具有可塑性。该项目提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，可以在脊椎动物社会和行为复杂性的背景下，研究性冲突在生殖结构进化中的作用。这项研究的广泛影响将是国际、国家、地方和个人的。该项目的第一篇研究论文在报纸、杂志、电视节目、网站和博客上广泛传播。该项目将通过耶鲁大学进化论者项目招收来自少数族裔的高中生，该项目为康涅狄格州纽黑文的学生提供服务。本项目建议的实验操作将在一个非营利性保护组织（LRWC.net）进行，该组织的使命是通过教育、研究和推广来保护水禽，本项目将有助于进一步实现他们的目标。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Conflict between the sexes over control of fertilization is expected to be widespread among organisms, but its evolutionary consequences are still poorly understood particularly in vertebrate animals. Waterfowl have complex breeding systems that include female partner preferences based on elaborate male plumage and courtship display, and unsolicited reproductive attempts by males other than the female's chosen partner. Female ducks show resistance behaviors and anatomies that have coevolved with male coercion. Ducks are ideally suited to study the evolution of sexual conflict and the evolution of reproductive structures. The project examines how reproductive morphology covaries with season, age, and social environment in a diverse sample of duck species that differ in ecology, territoriality and breeding system. Preliminary results of the project, suggest that male competition plays an important role in the evolution of waterfowl reproductive morphology, that male reproductive morphology is plastic depending on age and condition, and between species with different breeding systems. The project constitutes an exciting opportunity to investigate the role of sexual conflict on the evolution of reproductive structures in the context of social and behavioral complexity in vertebrates. Broader impacts of the research will be international, national, local, and personal. The first research publication related to this project was widely disseminated in popular newspapers, magazines, television programs, websites and blogs. The project will incorporate high school students from under-represented minorities through the Yale University EVOLUTIONISTS program, which serves students in New Haven, CT. The experimental manipulations suggested in this project will be carried out at a non-profit conservation organization (LRWC.net) whose mission is to conserve waterfowl through education, research and outreach and this project will help to further their goals.