Collaborative Research: Testing eco-evolutionary trophic cascades in aquatic ecosystems

合作研究：测试水生生态系统中的生态进化营养级联

• 批准号: 1457112
• 负责人: Michael Kinnison
• 金额: $ 18.44万
• 依托单位: University of Maine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-15 至 2021-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1457112&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Testing; eco; evolutionary

Changes to predator communities are occurring on a global scale. Because top predators can exert strong pressures on other species in a community, it is important to understand the consequences of their losses or gains. Will re-introduction of wolves alter current elk or moose populations? Will the loss of marine predators cause fish communities to collapse? These expectations often generate controversy. This project tests how evolutionary responses of prey to their predators might alter commonly-expected results of cascading effects within food chains. Predation, trophic cascades, and evolution are features of all natural ecosystems. Understanding how these processes interact is fundamental to interpreting past ecosystem changes and to predicting future changes. The results from this study will directly inform many of the controversies attending management of large predators. High school teachers and undergraduate students with teaching aspirations will be introduced to the ecological relevance of evolution through hands-on involvement in the research. This teacher training program will target teachers and students from traditionally underrepresented groups who work, or plan to work, in high needs schools with diverse and underprivileged students. The study of eco-evolutionary dynamics considers how ongoing evolution interacts with ecological interactions to shape population, community and ecosystem processes. Intriguing case studies suggest the effects of contemporary evolution on ecology can be large, but this area of research lacks theory that would extend its general importance. This research serves as a potential general application of the broader synthetic theory of eco-evolutionary dynamics through study of trophic cascades. It will provide an initial test of the requisite conditions of eco-evolutionary trophic cascades and quantitatively compare the magnitude and pattern of their effects to those of classical density- and behaviorally-mediated trophic cascades to understand their importance. Field surveys, manipulative experiments, and common garden experiments will be integrated to test the following predictions: 1) prey feeding traits in wild populations differ predictably in response to predator presence or absence, 2) feeding trait differences are heritable, 3) heritable differences in prey traits affect the density and species composition of prey resources, and 4) effects on prey resources cascade down food chains to influence primary producers. These conditions will be tested using recently introduced populations of Western mosquitofish inhabiting ponds with or without predatory largemouth bass. Mosquitofish are a classic system for studying both trophic cascades and contemporary evolution, and preliminary evidence supports evolutionary trade-offs between predator avoidance and resource competition. Numerous wild populations, small body size, short life span, and easy husbandry make this species well suited for the combined field and laboratory assays required for this research.

捕食者群落的变化正在全球范围内发生。由于顶级捕食者可以对群落中的其他物种施加强大的压力，因此了解它们的损失或收益的后果很重要。狼的重新引入会改变目前的麋鹿或驼鹿种群吗？海洋捕食者的消失会导致鱼类群落崩溃吗？这些期望往往引起争议。该项目测试了猎物对其捕食者的进化反应如何可能改变食物链内级联效应的普遍预期结果。捕食、营养级联和进化是所有自然生态系统的特征。了解这些过程如何相互作用是解释过去生态系统变化和预测未来变化的基础。这项研究的结果将直接通知参加大型捕食者管理的许多争议。高中教师和有教学愿望的本科生将通过亲身参与研究来了解进化的生态相关性。这一教师培训计划将针对传统上代表性不足的群体的教师和学生，他们在有不同和贫困学生的高需求学校工作或计划工作。生态进化动力学的研究考虑了正在进行的进化如何与生态相互作用相互作用，以塑造人口，社区和生态系统过程。有趣的案例研究表明，当代进化对生态学的影响可能很大，但这一领域的研究缺乏理论，将扩大其普遍的重要性。这项研究作为一个潜在的一般应用更广泛的综合生态进化动力学理论，通过研究营养级联。它将提供一个初步的测试生态进化的营养级联的必要条件和定量比较的规模和模式的经典密度和行为介导的营养级联的影响，以了解它们的重要性。实地调查，操作实验，和共同的花园实验将被整合，以测试以下预测：1）野生种群中的猎物摄食性状在捕食者存在或不存在的反应中可预测地不同，2）摄食性状差异是可遗传的，3）猎物性状的可遗传差异影响猎物资源的密度和物种组成，（4）对猎物资源的影响沿食物链向下传递，影响初级生产者。这些条件将进行测试，使用最近引进的种群西方食蚊鱼居住的池塘或没有捕食性大嘴鲈鱼。食蚊鱼是研究营养级联和当代进化的经典系统，初步证据支持捕食者回避和资源竞争之间的进化权衡。众多的野生种群，体型小，寿命短，易于饲养，使这个物种非常适合本研究所需的结合现场和实验室测定。