Collaborative Research: Scale- and context-dependence of relative humidity to adult Manduca sexta behavior

对植物与动物相互作用的感觉线索和信号的研究往往只关注一个尺度（群落或个体）和一个背景（吸引力）。相对而言，我们对感官线索如何在不同尺度和不同背景下改变行为知之甚少。本研究以烟蛾为研究对象，研究相对湿度在不同尺度（当地、栖息地和景观）和环境（性别、年龄、营养状况）下的觅食选择中的行为作用，以及这些因素如何相互作用（加和协同），改变定向、栖息地选择和觅食等负面行为的转变，以及它们对蛾类适应性的影响。来自康奈尔大学的大气科学本科生将接受跨学科的培训，他们不仅将在研究地点模拟相对湿度剖面，而且还将来到亚利桑那州亲自学习气候变量如何影响生物过程。这项研究还将支持一项外展计划，该计划利用昆虫在专门设计的讲习班和课堂参观中向二年级学生教授生物学原理，惠及5000多名小学生，其中大多数是少数民族和经济状况贫困的学生。这些学生将获得实践经验，了解沙漠环境中水和湿度的重要性，昆虫的行为方式和原因，以及昆虫本身的迷人之处。70多名本科生导师将接受外展教学培训，以及如何向公众传达对科学的热情。康奈尔大学的一个推广项目（“昆虫tapalooza”）专注于昆虫的非凡生物学，并将保证这个项目对两个不同城市的公众产生强烈的影响。本科生和博士后将在生态生理学、行为学、传粉生物学、营养生态学和群落结构等方面接受跨学科培训，并在实验设计、论文撰写和科研口头报告等方面进行一对一指导。

Studies of sensory cues and signals mediating plant-animal interactions have tended to focus only on one scale (community or individual) and one context (attraction). Relatively little is known as to how sensory cues modify behavior across scales and in different contexts. In this study, the tobacco hornworm hawkmoth (Manduca sexta) will be used to address the behavioral roles of relative humidity in foraging choices at different scales (local, habitat and landscape) and contexts (sex, age, nutritional status) and how these interact (additively, synergistically) to modify transitions in nectivorous behaviors of orientation, habitat selection and foraging and their implications for moth fitness. Cross-disciplinary training will be given to atmospheric science undergraduates from Cornell who will not only model relative humidity profiles at the study site, but will come to Arizona to learn, first hand, how climactic variables influence biological processes. This study will also support an outreach program that uses insects to teach biological principals to 2nd grade students in specially designed workshops and classroom visits, reaching over 5000 elementary school students most of whom are minority and of poverty economic status. These students will gain hands-on experience as to the importance of water and humidity in desert environments, how and why insects behave, and that bugs are inherently fascinating. Over 70 Undergraduate Preceptors will be trained in outreach teaching and how to convey an enthusiasm for science to the general public. An outreach program at Cornell ('Insectapalooza') is focused on the extraordinary biology of insects, and will guarantee a strong impact of this project on the public in two diverse cities. The undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows will receive cross-disciplinary training in ecophysiology, behavior, pollination biology, nutritional ecology and community structure, as well as one-on-one mentoring in experimental design, manuscript writing and the oral presentation of scientific research.