CAREER: Structure and resilience of social networks under population turnover

动物生活在个体的社会网络中，这些网络相互影响着彼此的生活。然而，社交网络必须随着时间的推移而变化；例如，所有社交网络最终都会因为死亡或分散而失去个人，而新的个人通过出生和移民加入社交网络。因此，简单而普遍的出生、死亡和运动过程从根本上塑造了任何给定时间的社会网络结构。这个项目的一个主要目标是了解人口统计和社会行为如何相互作用，从而影响社会网络的发展和稳定。该项目将把理论模型与长期的实地研究结合起来，重点关注越冬候鸟--金冠麻雀--群体协会的社会网络。候鸟的季节性社会网络允许重复研究网络形成的过程，每年都会有新老个体出现在种群中。作为一个整体，这个项目将提出新的问题，可以揭示控制社会如何形成的过程，以及面对不断变化的社会结构、动物种群甚至人类社会的弹性。该项目将把研究目标与两种不同类型的教育活动结合起来：制定关于可重复研究的教学课程，以及招收具有移民/难民背景的学生接受高等教育和科学教育。这个项目提出了一个一般框架，用于理解人口流动下社会网络的时间动态。该模型将这一过程分解为三个步骤：节点丢失、节点依附和社会融合。节点丢失和节点依附动态描述了人口统计学的影响，而社会融合捕捉到了形成新群体关联的潜在过程。该模型将有助于研究人口统计学、社会过程和社会地位的适合性结果对社会网络结构的联合影响。这项基于实地的经验性工作将探索跨越单一鸟类多代的社会网络中的自然长期动态。将进行实地实验，以测试社会地位对寻找新食物来源等行为的影响，以及社会关系对优势互动的影响。该项目的教育目标将为改善STEM的教育和增强多样性作出重大贡献。该项目将通过开发新的课程，提高数百名本科生和研究生进行可重复研究的能力。该项目还将努力增加对一个严重被忽视、服务不足的社区的招募，即中西部的难民和移民人口。难民是内布拉斯加州多样性的隐藏来源，为这些学生提供更多机会将加强美国的劳动力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Animals live within social networks of individuals that affect each other's lives. However, social networks must change across time; for example, all social networks eventually lose individuals through death or dispersal, and new individuals join social networks through birth and immigration. Thus, the simple and universal processes of birth, death and movement fundamentally shape the structure of social networks at any given time. A major goal of this project is to understand how demography and social behavior interact to affect the development and stability of social networks across time. The project will integrate theoretical models with long-term field research focusing on the social network of flock associations in a wintering migrant bird species, the golden-crowned sparrow. Seasonal social networks in migratory birds allows for the repeated study of the process of network formation with a mix of old and new individuals present in the population each year. As a whole, this project will pose new questions that can shed light on the processes that govern how societies take shape, and the resilience of social structure in the face of constant change, in animal populations and even in human societies. The project will integrate research goals with two different types of educational activities: development of teaching curricula on reproducible research and the recruitment of students of immigrant/refugee background to higher education and science. This project proposes a general framework for understanding the temporal dynamics of social networks under population turnover. The model breaks the process into three steps: node loss, node attachment and social integration. Node loss and node attachment dynamics describe the effects of demography, while social integration captures the processes underlying the formation of new flock associations. This model will enable the study of the joint effects of demography, social processes, and fitness consequences of social position on social network structure. The field-based empirical work will explore natural long-term dynamics in social networks spanning multiple generations of a single avian species. Field experiments will be conducted to test the effects of social position on behaviors such as finding novel food sources, as well as, the effects of social relations on dominance interactions. The educational objectives of this project will make significant contributions towards improving education and enhancing diversity in STEM. This project will enhance the capacity for reproducible research among hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students through development of new curricula. The project will also work to increase recruitment of a significantly overlooked, under-served community, i.e., refugee and immigrant populations in the Midwest. Refugees are hidden sources of diversity in Nebraska and enhancing opportunities for these students will strengthen the U.S. workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.