DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Individual Responses to Environmental Change: Contrasting the Behavior and Physiology of two Chipmunk Species

虽然关注动物的气候变化文献倾向于关注与气候匹配的范围变化，即物种在海拔或纬度上表现出向上移动，以跟踪它们的气候生态位，但也有许多物种保持相同的范围边界。这些物种必须在原地进行调整，很可能是在行为和生理上，以应对不断变化的环境。加州约塞米蒂国家公园的花栗鼠和高山花栗鼠是两个密切相关的物种，在过去的一个世纪里，它们以不同的方式应对了人类引起的气候变化：高山花栗鼠的活动范围向上移动，而特殊高山花栗鼠的重叠范围没有显著变化。这项研究探索了为什么一个物种范围会发生变化，而其共生物种范围不会发生变化的问题。这项研究很重要，因为确定塑造这些反应的直接机制对于理解正在发生的事情，以及随着环境变化的进展预测将发生什么至关重要。本科生现场助理将与研究人员和约塞米蒂国家公园管理局的教育和推广项目合作，研究人员将在那里与游客互动，并讨论公园内正在进行的研究。此外，研究人员将与旧金山湾区的学校科学家合作，开发和教授小学课程。其中一名研究人员还将在伯克利高中任教，并成为伯克利女性参与科学小组的联合领导人，该小组致力于提高女性在所有科学水平上的代表性。这些推广努力不仅将提高公众的科学素养，还将加强政府和学术研究努力之间的联系。这项研究将研究这些物种海拔范围不同部分的压力生理和行为所起的作用。研究人员假设，高山松毛虫的海拔范围边界调整更多地是由内在的生理耐受性决定的，而不是物种间的相互作用，就像人们认为的那样。此外，研究还假设应激激素水平与动物的活动预算有关。为了验证这些假设，研究人员将进行植被调查，使用iButton收集温度数据，并收集粪便样本以测量糖皮质激素(GC)代谢物。此外，每个物种的6只花栗鼠将被标记上遥感装置，这些装置配备了一个加速度计和一个陀螺仪、一个光传感器、一个压力传感器(可以确定海拔高度)和一个温度传感器。在使用半马尔可夫模型将加速度计数据自动转换为行为后，将计算每个人在每种行为上花费的总时间百分比。然后将使用计算机程序R中的广义线性混合模型来测试不同的环境参数(海拔、物种共生、温度[日平均/高/低]、一天中的时间、植被类别、人类影响评分)如何与行为模式和GC相关。最后，iButton数据将被用来确定一天中的时间与温度的关系，这些信息将被纳入统计模型，以测试关于每个物种如何将一天中的活动相对于温度和异种生物的活动进行划分的预测。

While climate change literature focused on animals tends to focus on climate-matched range shifts in which species show movement upward in elevation or latitude to track their climatic niches, there are many species that maintain the same range boundaries. These species must be making in situ adjustments, likely in behavior and physiology, to cope with their changing environments. The lodgepole (Tamias speciosus) and alpine chipmunks (T. alpinus) in Yosemite National Park, CA are two closely related species that have dealt with the past century of human-induced climate change differently: T. alpinus's range has moved upwards, while T. speciosus's overlapping range has not significantly shifted. This research explores the question of why one species range would shift while its co-occurring counterparts range does not. This research is important because determining the immediate mechanisms that shape these responses are critical to understanding what is happening, and predicting what will happen, as environmental change progresses. Undergraduate field assistants will work with the researchers and the National Park Service education and outreach program in Yosemite, where the researchers will interact with visitors and discuss ongoing research in the park. Additionally, the researchers will work with Bay Area Scientists in Schools to develop and teach grade-school lessons. One of the researchers will also tutor at Berkeley High School and become a co-leader of the Berkeley Women in Science group, which is devoted to increasing women's representation at all levels of science. These outreach efforts will not only increase scientific literacy in the public, but also will strengthen bonds between government and academic research efforts.This research will examine the roles of stress physiology and behavior in different parts of these species' elevational ranges. The researchers hypothesize that elevational range boundary adjustments for T. alpinus are determined more by intrinsic physiological tolerances than interspecific interactions, as is thought for T. speciosus. Additionally, the researches hypotheize that stress hormone levels are related to the animals activity budgets. To test these hypotheses, the researchers will conduct vegetation surveys, collect temperature data using iButton and collect fecal samples to measure glucocorticoid (GC) metabolites. In addition, 6 chipmunks from each species will be tagged with remote sensing units equipped with an accelerometer & gyrometer, a light sensor, a pressure sensor (which will allow for determination of elevation), and a temperature sensor. After the accelerometer data have been automatically translated into behaviors using a semi-Markov model, the overall percent time spent on each behavior for each individual will be calculated. A generalized linear mixed model in the computer program R will then be used to test how different environmental parameters (elevation, species co-occurrence, temperature [daily average/high/low], time of day, vegetation category, human impact score) are related to behavioral patterns and GCs. Lastly, iButton data will be used to determine how time-of-day is related to temperature and this information will be incorporated in statistical models to test predictions about how each species partitions its activity over the day relative to temperature and activity of the heterospecifics.