Ecological Drivers and Conservation Implications of Parental Care Diversity in Vertebrates

脊椎动物亲代照顾多样性的生态驱动因素和保护意义

• 批准号: 2788198
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Queen's University Belfast
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2788198
• 关键词: Ecological; Drivers; Conservation; Implications; Parental

There are astonishing differences in whether, how, and how long for, animals care for their offspring. In most species, such as many marine fishes, parents abandon their fertilized eggs to their own destiny, which is mostly being eaten by predators. Conversely, in other species parents provide protection and resources to their offspring. While parental care increases offspring survival, it also comes at considerable costs for the parents because resources and time are limited. Once evolved, not only does care affect the fitness of parents and offspring, but it also alters life history strategies, is related to sexual selection and mating system, leads to cooperation and conflict within the family, and promotes the evolution of sociality. Yet, we know very little about when care evolves and its knock-on effects on species reproduction, population dynamics and extinction risk. This project combines state-of-the-art phylogenetic comparative approaches, datasets of parental care behaviours for hundreds of vertebrate species, and cutting-edge evolutionary modelling, to: (i) Investigate which ecological conditions promote the evolution of care diversity;(ii) Unravel whether parental care is the driver or the consequences of changes in reproductive characteristics;(iii) Evaluate how care diversity influences population trends and extinction risk.

动物是否、如何以及持续多久，存在着惊人的差异。在大多数物种中，例如许多海洋鱼类，父母将受精卵遗弃给自己的命运，这些受精卵大多被掠食者吃掉。相反，在其他物种中，父母为后代提供保护和资源。虽然父母的照顾可以提高后代的存活率，但由于资源和时间有限，父母也付出了相当大的代价。一旦进化，照顾不仅影响父母和后代的健康，而且改变生活史策略，与性选择和交配系统相关，导致家庭内部的合作与冲突，促进社会性的进化。然而，我们对护理何时演变及其对物种繁殖、种群动态和灭绝风险的连锁反应知之甚少。该项目结合了最先进的系统发育比较方法、数百种脊椎动物的亲代照料行为数据集和前沿的进化模型，以：（i）调查哪些生态条件促进照料多样性的进化；（ii）揭示亲代照料是否是生殖特征变化的驱动因素或后果；（iii）评估照料多样性如何影响种群趋势和灭绝风险。