Integrating physiological and behavioral ecology: How limited resources and allocation trade-offs impact mate signaling

资源分配描述了生物体如何对有限的资源池进行预算，以支持关键的生命活动，如生存和繁殖。对这一过程的研究对于理解生物生物学和种群动力学至关重要。在粮食供应有限的情况下，资源分配发生了变化。天气条件和土地利用的变化会影响幼虫的食物供应。对于决定幼虫阶段获得的营养分配变化的限制和权衡，人们知之甚少，以应对有限的食物供应。这项拟议的工作使用了研究得很好的摩门教贝母蝴蝶来探索这个问题。这一结果对于理解传粉者数量如何随着天气变化和气候手段的方向性变化而变化至关重要。这项工作将传统的生理学和行为学结合在一起，产生了新的见解。它还包括实验室和现场的研究，提供对照研究与现场实际发生的情况之间的转换。此外，除了了解传粉者种群的社会重要性外，这项工作还将培训参与该项目的本科生和研究生，并通过与K-12教师的合作更广泛地传播研究结果。在完全变态的昆虫中，幼虫在蛹阶段获得的营养物质被分配给支持繁殖和生存的成虫形态特征，包括卵、储存和用于交配信号的特征。对于成体饮食不完整的蝴蝶等物种来说，分配尤其重要，因为成体摄食不能轻易补充氮素储备。这项研究追溯了不同大小的幼虫营养池的分配对后代投资的影响，以及交配信号的产生。在这样做的过程中，它将揭示交配行为和繁殖力的潜在机制，它们相互交织的健康效应取决于分配。解决的关键问题包括：在实验室中雌性幼虫获取食物的数量差异是否会导致氮依赖特征之间的权衡，包括卵母细胞数量(潜在繁殖)、脂肪体(储存)和翅膀色素沉积(配偶信号)？在实验室饲养的种群和野外种群之间，这些分配权衡是否有所不同？对机翼颜料的投资如何转化为机翼颜色的差异？翅膀颜色的差异如何转化为雌性对雄性的吸引力？在分配工作中，将对共同货币(氮)和适应性指标进行分析。结果将被整合到一个图形模型中。该模型将探索实验室和田野之间的权衡变化，以及食物获取和分配作为行为基础机制的作用。此外，为了促进对传粉者种群的机械性理解，该项目还将作为培训本科生和研究生的平台，同时还将通过与现场教师和讲解员的互动来传播研究成果。该项目由综合和组织系统部门的综合生态生理学项目和既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)共同资助。该奖项反映了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。

Resource allocation describes how organisms budget a finite resource pool in support of crucial life activities, such as survival and reproduction. The study of this process is vital to understanding organismal biology and population dynamics. Resource allocation changes under limited food availability. Changes in weather conditions and land use affect food availability for larval insects. Little is known about the constraints and trade-offs that determine changes in allocation of nutrients acquired in the larval stage to various components of reproduction in response to such limited food availability. The proposed work explores this question, using the well-studied Mormon fritillary butterfly. The results will be critical to understanding how pollinator population numbers change in response to both weather variability and directional change in climate means. The work integrates traditional physiology and behavior to yield new insights. It also includes studies in both the laboratory and field, providing a translation between controlled studies with what actually happens in the field. In addition, to the societal importance of understanding pollinator populations, the work will also train undergraduate and graduate students working on the project and disseminate the findings more broadly via collaboration with K-12 teachers. In insects with complete metamorphosis, nutrients acquired by larvae are allocated during the pupal stage to adult morphological traits that support reproduction and survival, including eggs, storage, and traits used in mate signaling. Allocation is particularly vital in species such as butterflies with incomplete adult diets, where adult feeding cannot readily supplement nitrogenous reserves. The work traces the effects of allocation of larval nutrient pools of different sizes to investment in offspring, as well as to the generation of mating signals. In so doing, it will reveal the mechanisms underlying mating behavior and fecundity, whose inter-twined fitness effects depend on allocation. Key questions addressed include: Do quantitative differences in larval food acquisition by females in the lab result in trade-offs among nitrogen-dependent traits including oocyte number (potential reproduction), fat body (storage), and wing pigmentation (mate signaling)? Do these allocation trade-offs differ between lab-reared and field populations? How does investment in wing pigments translate to differences in wing color? How do differences in wing color translate to attractiveness of females to males? Both a common currency (nitrogen) and fitness metrics will be assayed in the allocation work. The results will be integrated in a graphical model. The model will explore variation in trade-offs between the lab and field, and the role of food acquisition and allocation as mechanisms underlying behavior. In addition, to advancing the mechanistic understanding of pollinator populations, the project will also serve as a platform to train undergraduate and graduate students, while also disseminating the research findings via interactions with teachers and docents at the field sites.This project is jointly funded by the Integrative Ecological Physiology program in the Division of Integrative and Organismal Systems, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.