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: 2039667
• 负责人: Eugene Maurakis
• 金额: $ 20.93万
• 依托单位: University of Richmond
• 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=2039667&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.

面对诸如捕食者之类的危险，动物通常会暴露出自私的行为，以在群，学校，羊群或群中获得比其他人的生存优势。并未得到广泛的记录，但可能很常见的是，当动物控制自己的年轻人时，他们是否会自私地保护自己的年轻人，以牺牲他人的牺牲，而这些组合由自己的年轻人组成，与与其他人无关的人混合在一起。这项研究将研究鱼父母与巢中其他物种的卵混合时，对卵和幼虫的这种可能的自私保护。通过表征水流量和氧气水平以及巢中各个位置捕食鸡蛋的风险，并遗传识别在这些位置中发现的卵物种，研究人员将能够确定巢穴托管卵子孵化的位置的相对质量和安全性以及是否表明自私的父母护理行为。他们还将在自私，巢寄生虫和自私的畜群理论的背景下直接和摄像机期间观察到鱼类的行为，以直接和摄影作品来解释鸡蛋的放置和防御。作为北美独特的物种，土墩建筑大诺斯代表了一种自然和文化遗产，科学家在对动物行为的研究中基本上忽略了这一遗产。通过以科学和艺术表演为基础的纪录片来将对这些鱼类的了解对这些鱼类进行沟通，并将确保有效地发表科学知识，以获得以独特的行为和生态系统角色保护本地淡水鱼的支持。私人行为是大多数动物行为作为个人的行为，以使自己的自身适应性最大化，通常以自己的成就来最大程度地提高自己的健身。这项研究使用推定的共同性的公共巢育种淡水鱼类系统，将通过以下方式扩展汉密尔顿的自我遗产理论：1）包括非生物刺激作为对个别自私行为的定义威胁，以及2）认识到胚胎“群”可能是由父母在饲养环境中赋予brood brood的胚胎“群”。具体而言，这项研究将：i）调查如何在混合物种卵中的适应和空间位置之间的关系以及为了降低捕食风险而形成的幼虫聚集中的空间位置之间的关系；建筑物，产卵，激动人心的战斗和竞争性互动）以及本地淡水鱼的生态系统作用。基于生物学家，地球科学家和计算工程师之间的跨学科合作，这项研究将是第一个在三维孵化环境中表征自我的行为的研究，使用现场观察，实验和高表现，基于物理的，基于物理的水，水和矿床的模拟以及溶解的氧气和溶解的氧气动力学。研究者将使用计算流体动力学的新颖应用来表征水生巢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起对某些“巢寄养者”现象的基本重新思考，这是在鸟类和鱼类中常见的现象，因为潜在的依赖上下文依赖于上下文的互助主义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来诚实地支持。