DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Regulation of colony growth in leafcutter ants

三种主要元素，碳、氮和磷，决定生物体如何生长，并影响从群体到生态系统的系统功能。因此，生物体已经发展出行为和生理机制来适应元素可用性的限制，并在面临营养挑战时成功生长。像生物一样，收集和储存食物的社会群体也必须适应营养供应的变化。这项研究的重点是一个复杂的社会群体，切叶蚁群，如何使用行为策略来整合这些元素的摄入与群体的增长。由于群居昆虫群体必须将精力分配给觅食和照顾后代，因此群体的增长和成功取决于各活动之间的工作分配平衡。本研究将采用生物化学和行为技术来确定这三个关键因素的相对平衡如何影响群体生长，以及群体内个体工蜂的觅食和育儿决定。预计菌落将通过改变生长模式和在任务之间转移努力来应对限制，以平衡与菌落维持、生长和繁殖有关的不同任务，并围绕养分可用性。这些发现将整合我们对基本生物学特性（如生长规模）如何跨组织水平的理解，特别是在像群居昆虫这样的复杂社会群体中。社会性昆虫的社会复杂性和组织水平只有人类能与之相比。因此，它们可以作为解决资源和社会组织如何整合问题的相关模型。本研究对学生培训和拓展具有更广泛的影响。多名本科生将通过动手研究参与该项目，并将参加相关的研讨会：大多数学生将继续攻读博士学位或其他研究生培训。这项研究将在包括ask - a - biology网站（askabiologist asu.edu）和当地K-12示范在内的公共教育推广活动中展出。

Three major elements, Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus, determine how organisms grow, and influence how systems, from groups to ecosystems, function. As a result, organisms have developed behavioral and physiological mechanisms to adjust to limits in element availability and grow successfully in the face of nutritional challenges. Like organisms, social groups that collect and store food must also adapt to changes in nutrient availability. This study focuses on how a complex social group, the leafcutter ant colony, uses behavioral strategies to integrate intake of these elements with colony growth. Because social insect colonies must allocate effort to both foraging and brood care, colony growth and success depend on balancing work allocation across activities. This study will employ biochemical and behavioral techniques to determine how relative balances of these three key elements affect colony growth, as well as foraging and brood-care decisions by the individual workers within colonies. It is expected that colonies will respond to limitations by altering growth patterns and shifting efforts between tasks to balance different tasks associated with colony maintenance, growth, and reproduction around nutrient availability. The findings will integrate our understanding of how fundamental biological properties such as growth scale across levels of organization, especially in complex social groups like the social insects. Social insects are paralleled only by humans in their social complexity and level of organization. Thus, they serve as a relevant model to address the question of how resources and social organization are integrated. This research has broader impact in student training and outreach. Multiple undergraduates will be involved in the project through hands-on research and will participate in an associated seminar: the majority of students move on to the Ph.D. or other postgraduate training. The research will be featured in public educational outreach including the Ask-A-Biologist website (askabiologist.asu.edu) and local K-12 demonstrations.