NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Impacts of social breeding on the evolution of cognition

这是美国国家科学基金会生物学博士后研究奖学金，隶属于“扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与”项目。这位名叫安吉拉Medina-García的研究员正在进行研究并接受培训，以增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。他的导师是科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的丽贝卡·萨夫兰。该项目旨在了解社会性繁殖如何影响野生动物获取和利用社会信息的能力的进化。该研究员将通过评估不同群体大小的鸟类（仓燕）如何获取和使用社会信息，以及这些能力如何帮助它们繁殖，来填补这一科学知识的空白。动物需要不断获取和处理环境信息来生存和繁殖。许多动物生活在密集的群体中，这就要求它们关注其他动物的行为，并利用这些环境信息（即社会信息）来提高自己成功抚养后代的能力。他还为来自少数族裔的本科生提供了宝贵的研究培训。此外，来自弱势群体的小学和高中学生在学习基本鸟类生物学的同时，也在观察燕子的聚居地。他还在科罗拉多大学自然历史博物馆举办展览，建立一个关于鸟类认知的双语网站（“aviancognition”），以及一个报告仓燕种群的交互式在线项目（“swallow Tracker”），该项目涉及各个层次的学生，有助于提高公众对鸟类和生物领域研究的欣赏。家燕（Hirundo rustica）要么单独成对繁殖，要么与多对繁殖的家燕一起繁殖。因此，该物种是一个理想的系统，可以在具有不同程度社会性的同一种群中对个体的认知特征进行生态和系统发育控制的比较。社会繁殖对认知性状进化的影响将沿着社会连续体进行测试，目的如下：1)测量认知性状和繁殖成功的个体差异；2)测试出生和环境对认知特征的影响。自然发生的反捕食者行为将用于测量揭示选择性获取社会信息的认知特征。认知特征的适应价值将通过衡量繁殖成功率来评估。通过在不同规模的社会繁殖群体之间进行部分交叉培养实验，考察出生环境和社会环境对认知特征的影响。定量遗传模型将用于估计由于出生和饲养环境的方差成分。

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Angela Medina-García, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Rebecca Safran at the University of Colorado-Boulder. This project seeks to understand how social breeding impacts the evolution of wild animals' ability to acquire and use social information. The fellow will fill this gap in scientific knowledge by evaluating how birds (barn swallows) of different colony sizes acquire and use social information, and how these abilities help them reproduce. Animals need to constantly obtain and process environmental information to survive and reproduce. Many animals live in dense colonies, which requires them to pay attention to the actions of others and use this environmental information (i.e. social information) to increase their ability to successfully raise their young. The fellow is also providing invaluable research training to undergraduate students from underrepresented minorities. In addition, elementary and high school students from underrepresented groups are being engaged by observing swallow colonies while learning basic bird biology. The fellow is also developing exhibits at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, a bilingual website on avian cognition ('aviancognition'), and an interactive online program for reporting barn swallow colonies ('Swallow Tracker'), which involve students of all levels and help increase appreciation for birds and biological field research among the general public.Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) breed either in solitary pairs or in colonies with multiple breeding pairs. Therefore, this species is an ideal system to make ecologically and phylogenetically controlled comparisons of cognitive traits among individuals of the same population with a varying degree of sociality. The impacts of social breeding on the evolution of cognitive traits will be tested along a sociality continuum, with the following objectives: 1) Measure individual variation in cognitive traits and reproductive success; 2) Test natal and environmental influences on cognitive traits. Naturally occurring anti-predator behaviors will be used to measure cognitive traits that reveal selective acquisition of social information. The adaptive value of cognitive traits will be evaluated by measuring reproductive success. The influences of natal and social environments on cognitive traits will be examined by conducting a partial cross-fostering experiment between social breeding groups of different sizes. Quantitative genetic models will be employed to estimate variance components due to both natal and rearing environments.