Collaborative Research: Modeling the Tradeoffs within Food-, Fear-, and Thermal-Scapes to Explain Habitat Use by Mammalian Herbivores

由于自然景观正在迅速变化，了解决定生物如何选择栖息地和资源的因素仍然是生态学的一个中心问题。理论预测动物可以平衡食物数量或质量、捕食风险和物理环境带来的成本，但很少有研究充分评估与觅食动物功能相关的多个变量在空间和时间尺度上是如何相互作用的。这项研究为理解生境特征和生境利用之间的功能联系提供了一种新的综合方法。它结合了行为、营养、化学、空间和生理生态学，全面评估了影响普通草食动物和专业草食动物栖息地利用的因素：两种兔子。将在实验室和自然野外条件下测量四种栖息地特征(食物中的营养物质、食物中的毒素、安全覆盖和热覆盖)之间的权衡，以模拟和比较这些特征的功能重要性。当生物在自然环境中面临复杂的决策时，研究人员将整合结果来预测资源选择和推断栖息地质量。这项研究开发了一种在相对简单的系统中量化栖息地价值的新方法，该方法将增强对更复杂系统中环境变化后果的预测。它包括一种新颖的教育模式，培养研究生、本科生和高中生，他们将在三所大学之间合作开展研究，参与分级指导计划，并与社区和地区生物学家接触。这项研究和教育计划旨在扩大学生的科学经验，促进学术界、土地管理机构和公众之间的合作，并通过提供预测动物将如何在快速变化的生态系统中改变其栖息地使用的模型来为社会做出贡献。

Because natural landscapes are changing rapidly, understanding the factors that determine how organisms select both habitats and resources remains a central question in ecology. Theory predicts that animals can balance the costs posed by food quantity or quality, predation risk, and the physical environment, but few studies have adequately assessed how multiple variables interact at spatial and temporal scales that are functionally relevant to a foraging animal. This research offers a new and synthetic approach to understand functional links between habitat features and habitat use. It combines behavioral, nutritional, chemical, spatial, and physiological ecology to evaluate comprehensively the factors that influence habitat use by generalist and specialist herbivores: two species of rabbits. Tradeoffs among four habitat features (nutrients in food, toxins in food, security cover, and thermal cover) will be measured in the laboratory and under natural field conditions to model and compare the functional importance of these features. The investigators will integrate results to predict resource selection and infer habitat quality when organisms are faced with complex decisions in natural environments. This research develops a new method for quantifying habitat value in a relatively simple system that will enhance predictions of the consequences of environmental change in more complex systems. It includes a novel educational model that trains graduate, undergraduate, and high school students who will conduct research collaboratively across three universities, participate in a tiered mentoring program, and engage with the community and regional biologists. This research and educational program is designed to broaden the scientific experience of students, to foster collaborations between academia, land management agencies and the public, and to contribute to society by providing models that predict how animals will alter their use of habitats in rapidly changing ecosystems.