MCA: Using multilayer-network analysis to link the social and physical processes that underlie natal dispersal

自然环境、与他人的互动以及动物自身的特征如何共同作用，影响动物在景观中的移动？这个项目将通过汇集最近动物行为和生态学研究中最有影响力的几个主题来回答这个问题：运动生态学、个体行为差异和社会网络方法。具体地说，该项目将使用新的多层互动网络方法来了解与其他动物和环境的互动如何影响野生老鼠的运动行为。该项目将使用通过自动跟踪获得的动物位置数据、个体刷鼠(Permyscus Ball Lii)的荷尔蒙和行为特征，以及关于老鼠移动所通过的物理环境的信息。该项目的更广泛影响包括对学生的教学和指导，为K-12学生编写教材，以及开发可供更广泛的科学界使用的动物跟踪基础设施。尽管动物扩散作为个体行为和更大规模的生态和进化过程之间的中心纽带具有明显的重要性，但出生扩散的原因、后果和过程，即在出生地和第一次繁殖地点之间的移动，仍然相对神秘。该项目的主要重点将是将研究扩散行为的运动生态学和个体差异的已有和有影响力的范式与迅速发展的多层网络方法相结合，将物理和社会过程连接起来，通过社会和物理上的异质景观发展对分散中的个体差异的真正综合理解。该项目将利用自动跟踪Permyscus小鼠获得的数据构建的多层交互网络与遗传、内分泌、行为和环境数据相结合，以发展对动物在社会和生态条件随空间和时间变化的景观中传播的综合理解。另一个目标是在先前的跟踪技术被野火摧毁后，通过重建动物跟踪能力来发展研究基础设施。这一奖项反映了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。

How do the physical environment, interactions with others, and an animal’s own characteristics act together to influence that animal’s movements through a landscape? This project will answer this question by bringing together several of the most influential themes in recent animal behavior and ecology research: movement ecology, individual behavioral differences, and social network approaches. Specifically, this project will employ new multilayer interaction network approaches to understand how interactions with other animals and the environment influence movement behavior in wild mice. This project will use animal location data obtained used automated tracking, hormonal and behavioral profiles of individual brush mice (Peromyscus boylii), and information about the physical environment through which mice move. Broader impacts of this project include teaching and mentoring of students, development of educational materials for K-12 students, and the development of animal tracking infrastructure available for use by the wider scientific community. Despite the clear importance of animal dispersal as a central link between individual behavior and larger-scale ecological and evolutionary processes, the causes, consequences, and process of natal dispersal, movement between the birthplace and site of first reproduction, remain relatively enigmatic. The primary focus of this project will be the integration of established and influential paradigms for the study of the movement ecology and individual variation in dispersal behavior with rapidly-advancing multilayer network approaches connecting physical and social processes to develop a truly integrative understanding of individual variation in dispersal through a socially- and physically-heterogeneous landscape. This project will integrate multilayer interaction networks constructed using data obtained from automated tracking of Peromyscus mice with genetic, endocrine, behavioral, and environmental data to develop an integrative understanding of animal dispersal through landscapes that vary in social and ecological conditions through space and time. An additional objective is the development of research infrastructure through the reestablishment of animal tracking capabilities after previous tracking technology was destroyed by wildfire.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.