Collaborative Research: An interdisciplinary approach to understand selfish parental care of egg and larvae in mixed-species communal nest breeding freshwater fishes

合作研究：采用跨学科方法来了解混合物种公共巢繁殖淡水鱼中卵和幼虫的自私父母照顾

• 批准号: 2039692
• 负责人: Emmanuel Frimpong
• 金额: $ 103.98万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2039692&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; interdisciplinary; approach; understand

Faced with danger such as a predator, animals commonly exhibit selfish behavior to gain survival advantages over others when in a herd, school, flock, or swarm. What is not widely documented, but probably common, is whether animals selfishly protect their young at the expense of others when they have control over an assemblage consisting of their own young mixed with others unrelated to them. This study will investigate such possible selfish protection of eggs and larvae orchestrated by fish parents when their eggs are mixed with those of other species in their nest. By characterizing water flow and oxygen levels and risk of predation of eggs in various locations in the nest and genetically identifying the species of eggs found in these locations, the researchers will be able to determine the relative quality and safety of the locations where the nest host places its eggs for incubation and whether that indicates selfish parental care behavior. They also will observe fish behaviors during nest building and spawning, directly and with videography, to interpret placement and defense of eggs in the context of selfishness, nest parasitism, and the selfish herd theory. As species unique to North America, mound-nest building minnows represent a natural and cultural heritage that scientists have largely overlooked in their studies of animal behavior. Communicating improved understanding of these fishes to the general public through a documentary grounded in science and artistic performances, will ensure effective publicization of scientific knowledge to garner support for preservation of native freshwater fishes with unique behaviors and ecosystem roles.Selfishness underpins most animal behaviors as individuals act to maximize their own fitness, often at others’ expense. Using a putatively mutualistic communal nest breeding freshwater fish system, this study will expand Hamilton’s selfish-herd theory in two key ways by: 1) including an abiotic stimulus as a defining threat for individual selfish behavior, and 2) recognizing that embryonic ‘herds’ may be created by parents to confer selfish-herd benefits on their brood in an incubation environment. Specifically, this study will: i) Investigate how ambient dissolved oxygen modifies the relationship between fitness and spatial position in a mixed-species egg and larval aggregation formed to reduce predation risk, ii) Determine if and how selfish-herd effect is conferred on incubating host brood through egg and larval distribution in a mixed-species freshwater fish nest-association, and iii) Bridge the public-knowledge gap about breeding behaviors (nest building, spawning, agonistic combat, and cooperative-competitive interactions) and ecosystem roles of native freshwater fishes. Built on an interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists, geoscientists and computational engineers, this study will be the first to characterize selfish-herd behavior in a three-dimensional incubation environment, using a combination of field observations, experimentation, and high-precision, physics-based simulation of water and silt movement and dissolved oxygen dynamics in mound nests. The investigator’s will use a novel application of computational fluid dynamics to characterize aquatic nest abiotic environment and its consequence for survival of eggs and larvae. Success of this study will provoke fundamental rethinking of some “nest-parasitism” phenomena, common among birds and fishes, as potentially context-dependent mutualisms.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.

面对危险，如捕食者，动物通常表现出自私的行为，以获得生存优势时，在牛群，学校，羊群，或群。没有被广泛记录但可能很常见的是，当动物控制着由自己的幼崽和与它们无关的其他幼崽组成的集合时，它们是否会自私地以牺牲其他幼崽为代价来保护自己的幼崽。这项研究将探讨这种可能的自私保护的卵和幼虫精心策划的鱼父母时，他们的蛋与其他物种的混合在他们的巢。通过表征水流和氧气水平以及巢中不同位置的鸡蛋捕食风险，并从遗传学上识别这些位置发现的鸡蛋种类，研究人员将能够确定巢宿主放置鸡蛋孵化的位置的相对质量和安全性，以及这是否表明自私的父母照顾行为。他们还将观察鱼类在筑巢和产卵过程中的行为，直接和录像，以解释蛋的放置和防御的自私，巢寄生和自私的羊群理论。作为北美特有的物种，巢穴建筑小鱼代表了科学家在动物行为研究中很大程度上忽视的自然和文化遗产。通过科学和艺术表演的纪录片向公众传播对这些鱼类的更好的了解，将确保有效地宣传科学知识，以获得对保护具有独特行为和生态系统作用的本地淡水鱼类的支持。自私是大多数动物行为的基础，因为个体往往以牺牲他人为代价来最大限度地提高自己的健康。使用一个pueculiaristic共同巢养殖淡水鱼系统，本研究将扩大汉密尔顿的自私羊群理论在两个关键方面：1）包括一个非生物刺激作为一个定义的威胁，个人自私的行为，和2）认识到，胚胎“羊群”可能是由父母创造的，赋予自私羊群的好处，他们的育雏在孵化环境。具体而言，本研究将：i）调查环境溶解氧如何改变混合物种卵和幼虫聚集体中的适合度和空间位置之间的关系，以降低捕食风险，ii）确定是否以及如何通过混合物种淡水鱼巢群中的卵和幼虫分布来赋予孵化宿主育雏自私羊群效应，以及iii）弥合有关繁殖行为的公共知识差距（筑巢，产卵，竞争的战斗，和合作竞争的相互作用）和生态系统的作用，本地淡水鱼类。这项研究建立在生物学家，地球科学家和计算工程师之间的跨学科合作基础上，将是第一个在三维孵化环境中描述自私羊群行为的研究，结合实地观察，实验和高精度，基于物理学的模拟水和泥沙运动以及土墩巢中的溶解氧动态。研究人员将使用计算流体动力学的新应用来描述水生巢的非生物环境及其对卵和幼虫生存的影响。这项研究的成功将引发对鸟类和鱼类中常见的一些“巢寄生”现象的根本性反思，这些现象可能是环境依赖的互惠关系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。