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

职业：测试野生种群异质景观中适应性表型-环境匹配的替代途径

• 批准号: 1942145
• 负责人: Daniel Warner
• 金额: $ 116万
• 依托单位: Auburn University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1942145&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Testing; alternative; routes; adaptive

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.

这项研究将通过关注一种在不同栖息地产卵的小型蜥蜴物种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，在阳光明媚和阴暗的斑块之间移动），这可能对适应特定条件的生物提出挑战。植物和动物都有科普这种变化的策略，科学家们必须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。该项目的目标是：1）量化自然选择对胚胎发育方式的影响，以应对环境变化，2）确定新孵化的后代是否寻求合适的栖息地，3）检查母亲是否选择了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将如何应对环境变化。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亚拉巴马的科学教育。教师将进行研究，并为他们的教室制定课程计划，以更好地准备他们教科学作为一个过程。教师研究员还将指导中学生参加科学博览会项目，这反过来又将提高科学教育不足的学校的科学素养。自然选择偏爱几条路线，使生物体能够克服异质环境带来的挑战。首先，对环境的可塑性反应可以改变表型，使其适应周围环境（环境匹配假说）。第二，而不是环境塑造一个人的表型，个人可以积极寻求环境，适合他们的表型（匹配生境选择假说）。第三，父母可以选择特定的微生境，保护他们的后代免受环境变化的影响，从而使他们接触到“良好的”发育环境，对他们的一生都有积极的影响（银勺假说）。这些策略可以在不同的生命阶段（通过胚胎反应，出生后的栖息地选择或父母的行为）在异质环境中最大限度地适应。然而，尽管每个假设的许多实证研究，大多数不同时考虑这些解释作为替代或互动的路线，影响发育可塑性的演变。该项目的目标是（1）测试这些关于生物体如何处理环境异质性的替代假设，（2）经验性地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。这项研究将整合实验室和实地研究的棕色变色蜥蜴，栖息在岛屿，不同的栖息地结构和环境条件。新的实验室和现场方法的整合将为可塑性选择的实证研究设定新的标准，以及在野外匹配栖息地选择和母亲筑巢行为的后果。总的来说，这项工作将提供一个有机体如何处理环境异质性的综合评估在nature.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

项目成果

Natural nest substrates influence squamate embryo physiology but have little effect on hatchling phenotypes

天然巢基质影响有鳞动物胚胎生理学，但对孵化表型影响不大

• DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12553
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: Integrative Zoology
• 影响因子: 3.3
• 作者: HALL, Joshua M.;MIRACLE, Jocelyn;SCRUGGS, Cindy D.;WARNER, Daniel A.
• 通讯作者: WARNER, Daniel A.

Nesting in Anolis Lizards: An Understudied Topic in a Well-Studied Clade

• DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2022.821115
• 发表时间: 2022-05
• 作者: Jenna E. Pruett;Joshua M. Hall;Sarin Tiatragul;D. Warner