CAREER: Testing alternative routes of adaptive phenotype-environment matching across heterogeneous landscapes in wild populations

这项研究将通过关注一种在不同栖息地产卵的小型蜥蜴来研究动物如何在不同的生命阶段适应环境变化。环境条件在小的空间尺度上变化（例如，在阳光和阴凉的斑块之间移动），这可能给适应特定条件的生物带来挑战。植物和动物都有应对这种变化的策略，对科学家来说，了解这些策略是如何部署的，以便更好地预测对环境变化的反应是很重要的。该项目的目标是：1)量化自然选择作用于胚胎对环境变化的反应方式的强度；2)确定新孵化的后代是否会寻找合适的栖息地；3)检查母亲是否会选择对后代终身有益的筑巢地点。了解这三种不同的处理环境变化的方式将有助于生态学家预测动物对环境变化的反应。该项目还旨在通过为中学教师创建暑期奖学金计划来改善阿拉巴马州的科学教育。教师将为他们的课堂进行研究和制定课程计划，以更好地为他们将科学作为一个过程来教授做好准备。教师研究员还将指导中学生参加科学展览项目，这反过来将提高科学教育服务不足的学校的科学素养。自然选择倾向于几种途径，使生物体能够克服异质环境所带来的挑战。首先，对环境的可塑性反应可以改变表型，使它们适应周围的环境（环境匹配假说）。其次，个体可以主动寻找适合其表型的环境，而不是环境塑造个体的表型（匹配栖息地选择假说）。第三，父母可以选择特定的微栖息地，保护他们正在发育的后代免受环境变化的影响，从而使他们暴露在具有终身积极影响的“良好”发育环境中（银勺假说）。这些策略可以在不同生命阶段（通过胚胎反应、出生后栖息地选择或亲代行为）的异质环境中最大限度地提高适应性。然而，尽管每个假说都有许多实证研究，但大多数都没有同时考虑这些解释是影响发育可塑性进化的替代或相互作用的途径。该项目的目标是：(1)测试这些关于生物如何处理环境异质性的替代假设；(2)实证量化野生种群中发育反应规范的选择，并确定促进或限制可塑性进化的行为。这项研究将结合实验室和实地研究棕色变色蜥蜴，栖息在不同的栖息地结构和环境条件的岛屿。新的实验室和实地方法的整合将为可塑性选择的实证研究以及栖息地选择与野生母亲筑巢行为相匹配的后果建立新的标准。总的来说，这项工作将提供生物体如何处理自然界环境异质性的综合评估。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research will examine how animals adjust to environmental variation across different life stages by focusing on a small lizard species that lays eggs in diverse habitats. Environmental conditions vary at small spatial scales (for example, moving between sunny and shady patches), which can present challenges to organisms that are adapted to specific conditions. Plants and animals have strategies that allow them to cope with this variation, and it is important for scientists to understand how such strategies are deployed so responses to environmental changes can be better predicted. The goals of this project are to 1) quantify the strength of natural selection acting on the way embryos develop in response to environmental variation, 2) determine if newly-hatched offspring seek suitable habitat, and 3) examine whether mothers select nest sites with conditions that have life-long benefits for their offspring. Understanding these three different ways of dealing with environmental variation will help ecologists predict how animals will respond to environmental change. This project also aims to improve science education in Alabama by creating a summer fellowship program for middle school teachers. Teachers will conduct research and develop lesson plans for their classrooms to better prepare them to teach science as a process. Teacher fellows will also mentor middle school students in science fair projects, which in turn, will enhance science literacy in schools that are under-served in science education.Natural selection has favored several routes that enable organisms to overcome challenges imposed by heterogeneous environments. First, plastic responses to the environment can modify phenotypes so that they are suited to the surrounding environment (Environmental Matching Hypothesis). Second, rather than the environment shaping an individual’s phenotype, individuals can actively seek environments that are suited to their phenotype (Matching Habitat Choice Hypothesis). Third, parents can select specific microhabitats that shield their developing offspring from environmental variation, thereby exposing them to “good” developmental environments that have life-long positive effects (Silver Spoon Hypothesis). These strategies can maximize fitness in heterogeneous environments at different life stages (via embryo responses, post-natal habitat choice, or parental behavior). However, despite many empirical studies of each hypothesis, most do not simultaneously consider these explanations as alternate or interactive routes that influence the evolution of developmental plasticity. The goals of this project are to (1) test these alternative hypotheses for how organisms deal with environmental heterogeneity, and (2) empirically quantify selection on developmental reaction norms in wild populations and identify behaviors that facilitate or limit the evolution of plasticity. This research will integrate laboratory and field studies of brown anole lizards that inhabit islands that vary in habitat structure and ambient conditions. The integration of novel lab and field approaches will set new standards for empirical studies of selection on plasticity, and the consequences of matching habitat choice and maternal nesting behaviors in the wild. Overall, this work will provide an integrative assessment of how organisms deal with environmental heterogeneity in nature.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.