IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Feedback between physiological performance and social foraging in multi-species social network of wintering birds

虽然许多鸟类在冬天迁徙到温暖的气候，但有些物种能够留下来并度过寒冷的冬天，尽管它们的身体很小，需要保持较高的体温。在温带地区过冬的小型鸟类具有促进产热和维持体温的生理适应，以及行为适应，如群居觅食，可以由单个或多个物种组成。在这些鸟群中，个体之间的社会关系网络——在物种内部和物种之间——影响着日常的觅食模式。因此，这些生理和行为适应是通过一个反馈循环联系在一起的：群居觅食使鸟类能够收集足够的食物来产生热量，而热量消耗会产生对更多食物的需求，这影响了群居觅食的动态。该项目探索了个体生理学与群体成员之间以及跨物种群体在寻找稀缺资源时产生的生态和社会关系之间的联系。为了了解生理和行为之间的反馈如何影响越冬鸣禽群落中个体和物种之间的社会动态，我们将：(1)量化面对不同环境温度时生理变化对社会网络稳定性的影响；(2)通过实验操纵社会伙伴的能量需求，检验生理约束对社会关系的重要性；(3)通过实验操纵社会伙伴间觅食活动的协调性，检验社会关系对生理表现的影响。这些目标将通过描述社会觅食网络和分析野生鸣禽种群的生理表现来实现，鸣禽种群使用配备射频识别接收器的喂食器阵列来记录社会觅食。我们还将通过改变野外的热环境和资源可用性来梳理生理和社会行为之间的相互关系。总之，这项工作将促进我们对个体表型变异和社区社会动态之间反馈的理解。该项目将侧重于四个主要领域的更广泛的影响活动：(1)通过两所大学的本科生、学士和研究生的研究经验来改善STEM的培训和包容性；(2)通过整合基于课程的本科生研究经验来改善本科STEM教育；(3)通过为6-9年级制定符合美国下一代科学标准的可扩展、高产、跨学科课程计划来改善中学STEM教育。(4)通过实地活动和演讲进行公众参与。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

While many birds migrate to warmer climates during the winter, some species are able to stay and survive cold winters despite their small bodies and need to maintain high body temperatures. Small birds that stay in temperate latitudes during the winter have physiological adaptations to promote heat production and maintain body temperature, as well as behavioral adaptations such as social foraging in flocks that can be composed of single or multiple species. In these flocks, the network of social relationships between individuals—within and between species—affect daily foraging patterns. Thus, these physiological and behavioral adaptations are linked through a feedback loop: social foraging allows birds to collect enough food to fuel heat production, and energy expended for heat creates demand for more food, which affects social foraging dynamics. This project explores these connections between the physiology of an individual and the ecological and social relationships that arise between group members and across species when they flock together in search of scarce resources. To understand how feedback between physiology and behavior influences the social dynamics between individuals and species in a community of wintering songbirds, we will: (1) quantify the effects of physiological variation on social network stability in the face of variable ambient temperatures; (2) experimentally manipulate energetic demand among social partners to test the importance of physiological constraints on social relationships; and, (3) experimentally manipulate coordination of foraging activities among social partners to test the importance of social relationships on physiological performance. These aims will be achieved by characterizing social foraging networks and assaying physiological performance in wild, marked populations of songbirds using arrays of feeders equipped with radio-frequency identification receivers to record social foraging bouts. We will additionally tease apart reciprocal relationships between physiology and social behavior by altering both the thermal environment and resource availability in the wild. Together this work will advance our understanding of the feedback between individual phenotypic variation and community social dynamics. This project will focus on broader impacts activities in four main areas: (1) Improving training and inclusivity in STEM through research experience for undergraduates, baccalaureate students, and graduate students across two universities, (2) Improving undergraduate STEM education through integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences, (3) Improving middle school STEM education through the production of scalable, high-production, interdisciplinary lesson plans for grades 6-9 that meet U.S. Next Generation Science Standards, and (4) Public engagement through field activities and presentations.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.