Balancing Social and Ecological Information to Collectively Manage Dynamic Environments

动物，无论是行为上的还是生理上的，都通过使用身体上的感受器来管理日常和季节性的环境波动，如温度变化。对于群居动物来说，个体经常在一个群体中共同努力，以更有效地管理这些波动，比如通过挤在一起，但人们对动物如何做到这一点知之甚少。例如，蜜蜂是研究社会温度调节的一个很好的模型系统，因为它们从事一种名为扇风的降温行为，即一群蜜蜂扇动翅膀在蜂群中流通空气。如果它们不能有效冷却，蜂群可能会死亡。这个项目将确定蜜蜂用来感知环境波动的机制，它们的大脑如何对这些信息做出反应，它们如何相互交流这些信息，以及当信息发生变化时，整个蜂群如何调节温度。生理和基因测试技术将被用来理解个人和集体行为，特别是在不断变化的环境中。该项目将吸引公众参与：1)开发当地监狱养蜂计划，为囚犯提供切实的劳动力技能；2)与ROSE项目合作，重点是向未被充分代表的中学生和家长介绍STEM研究；3)在当地养蜂和生态会议上发表演讲；4)培训和支持本科生、研究生和博士后科学家进行这些尖端研究和推广技术。组织必须能够从行为和生理上管理气候的日常和季节性波动。感觉的接收和信息的整合对于在典型的跨天或跨季节的温度变化中保持内稳态至关重要。对温度变化的集体行为反应需要有效地接受和整合社会和生态信息。尽管我们知道动物为什么会调节体温，但我们不太清楚动物如何整合社会信息来有效地调节体温。蜜蜂必须在蜂群中保持34摄氏度，否则就有可能导致发育中的幼蜂死亡。在夏天，蜜蜂会进行一种名为扇风的降温行为，在这种行为中，它们会扇动翅膀，让空气流通，为蜂群降温。Fanner蜜蜂利用来自它们巢友的信息和来自生态环境的信息来集体调节体温。当社会和热信息发生变化时，风扇反应会发生变化；然而，个人或群体如何感知、整合或交流这些变化以共同行动，目前尚不清楚。这项建议将通过解决四个目标来确定这些机制：1)确定社会交互如何塑造风扇反应；2)发现与风扇反应相关的神经基因网络；3)确定Trp通道参与风扇反应；以及4)在不断变化的环境中评估群体水平的风扇反应。这项研究将提供关于复杂动物系统如何管理动态环境的关键知识，确定调节有效反应的基因和感觉通路，并产生关于动物群体如何管理全球气候变化的假设。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。

Animals, whether behaviorally or physiologically, manage daily and seasonal environmental fluctuations, such as temperature changes, by using receptors on their bodies. For social animals, individuals often work together in a group to manage these fluctuations much more effectively, such as through huddling, yet little is known about exactly how animals accomplish this. Honeybees, for example, are an excellent model system to study social temperature regulation because they engage in a cooling behavior called fanning, in which a group of bees fan their wings to circulate air in the colony. If they do not cool effectively, the colony can die. This project will identify the mechanisms that honeybees use to sense environmental fluctuations, how their brains change in response to this information, how they communicate this information to each other, and how entire colonies regulate temperature when information changes. Physiological and genetic testing techniques will be used to understand both individual and collective behavior, especially in changing environments. The project will engage the public 1) by developing a local prison beekeeping program to provide tangible workforce skills for inmates, 2) by working with the ROSE Project, which focuses on introducing underrepresented middle school students and parents to STEM research, 3) by presenting at local beekeeping and ecology meetings, and 4) by training and supporting undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral scientists in these cutting-edge research and outreach techniques.Organisms must be able to behaviorally and physiologically manage daily and seasonal fluctuations in climate. Sensory reception and integration of information is critical to maintain homeostasis during typical thermal shifts across days or seasons. Collective behavioral responses to changing temperatures require effective reception and integration of both social and ecological information. Although we know why animals thermoregulate, it is less clear how animals integrate social information to be able to thermoregulate effectively. Honeybees must maintain 34°C in their colony, or risk death of their developing brood. In the summer, honeybees engage in a cooling behavior called fanning, in which they fan their wings to circulate air to cool the colony. Fanner honeybees utilize both information from their nestmates and information from their ecological environment to collectively thermoregulate. The fanning response shifts when the social and thermal information changes; however, the ways in which individuals or groups perceive, integrate, or communicate about these changes to behave collectively is unknown. This proposal will identify these mechanisms by addressing four aims: 1) Determine how the social interactions shape the fanning response; 2) Uncover the neural gene networks associated with the fanning response; 3) Define TRP channel involvement in the fanning response; and 4) Evaluate colony-level fanning response in a changing environment. This research will provide critical knowledge about how complex animal systems manage dynamic environments, identify gene and sensory pathways that mediate effective responses, and generate hypotheses about how animal groups may manage global climate change.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.