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Individual differences and the dynamics of animal populations

动物种群的个体差异和动态

基本信息

批准号：
NE/E015921/1
负责人：
Tim Coulson
金额：
$ 36.87万
依托单位：
Imperial College London
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2008
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2008 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FE015921%2F1
关键词：
Individual differences dynamics animal populations

项目摘要

All population fluctuate in size from year to year. An understanding of the causes of these changes in size is helpful when managing and conserving populations and has interested biologists for more than three centuries. Until recently, understanding changes in population size, i.e. population dynamics, has concentrated on investigating the changes in numbers alone, ignoring differences between individuals. Over the last few years there has been an increasing realisation that differences between individuals in age but also in traits like body size or condition crucially affect the way populations respond to changes in the environment over time. In addition, biologists have realised that evolutionary change can happen much faster than had previously been appreciated and that ecological and evolutionary change can happen simultaneously. This means that an ability to understand population dynamics, necessary to predict and manage populations, may require understanding of the way traits change in response to ecological and evolutionary pressures. Understanding dynamics may therefore require insight into how ecological and evolutionary processes are linked. Because all ecological and evolutionary change is determined by differences in birth and death rates between groups of individuals, we can use data on the survival and fertility rates of individuals living within a population to marry changes in trait distributions to changes in population size. This is what we will do in this grant. What will the work we do deliver? Take a concrete example: harvesting large individuals from a population will affect more than just the numbers of adults: it will alter the way the animals compete for resources, allowing smaller individuals greater access, perhaps allowing them to grow or reproduce more; it is also likely to alter average reproductive rates as larger individuals may reproduce more, or give rise to higher quality offspring. Harvesting will also alter the selection pressure on individuals, making it more beneficial to mature earlier and at a smaller size. Thus harvesting's effects are more profound than simply the removal of some individuals leaving all others unchanged. We expect that our work will allow us to understand how (1) selectively removing specific individuals from a population is likely to impact the dynamics of the population, and (2) how different types environments lead to changes in the distribution of traits like body size. This will provide some information on how we might expect changes in the climate to influence both the evolution of traits like body size, as well as fluctuations in population size. The approach we will take has never been applied to animals. We will use data from four contrasting animal species / a monogamous bird, the silvereye; free-living Soay sheep; group-living meerkats; and laboratory populations of soil mites. These systems have been chosen because previous research has provided a good understanding of many aspects of their ecology, because detailed data exist and because they have very different life histories and ecologies. By investing a range of species simultaneously, we will also be able to get a feeling for the generality of our conclusions and the degree to which we need to develop joint understanding of the way numbers and traits vary.

所有种群的大小每年都有波动。了解这些大小变化的原因有助于管理和保护种群，并在三个多世纪以来引起了生物学家的兴趣。直到最近，理解种群规模的变化，即种群动态，一直集中在调查数量的变化，忽略了个体之间的差异。在过去的几年里，人们越来越认识到，个体之间的年龄差异以及身体大小或状况等特征对人口对环境变化的反应方式产生了至关重要的影响。此外，生物学家已经意识到，进化的变化可能比以前认识到的要快得多，而且生态和进化的变化可以同时发生。这意味着，要想了解预测和管理种群所必需的种群动态，可能需要了解性状在生态和进化压力下的变化方式。因此，理解动态可能需要深入了解生态和进化过程是如何联系在一起的。因为所有的生态和进化变化都是由不同群体的个体之间出生率和死亡率的差异决定的，所以我们可以利用生活在一个种群中的个体的生存率和生育率的数据，将性状分布的变化与种群规模的变化结合起来。这就是我们在这一补助金中要做的。我们所做的工作将提供什么？举一个具体的例子：从一个种群中收获大个体将影响的不仅仅是成年动物的数量：它将改变动物争夺资源的方式，使较小的个体有更多的机会，也许使它们能够生长或繁殖更多;它还可能改变平均繁殖率，因为较大的个体可能繁殖更多，或者产生更高质量的后代。收获也将改变个体的选择压力，使其更有利于更早成熟和更小的尺寸。因此，收获的影响比简单地除去一些个体而留下所有其他个体不变更深远。我们希望我们的工作将使我们能够理解（1）从种群中选择性地删除特定个体可能会影响种群的动态，以及（2）不同类型的环境如何导致身体大小等特征分布的变化。这将提供一些信息，说明我们如何预期气候变化会影响体型等性状的进化以及种群规模的波动。我们将采取的方法从未应用于动物。我们将使用的数据，从四个对比鲜明的动物物种/一夫一妻制的鸟，silvereye;自由生活的Soay羊;群体生活的猫鼬;和实验室人口的土壤螨。之所以选择这些系统，是因为以前的研究已经对其生态学的许多方面有了很好的了解，因为存在详细的数据，而且它们有非常不同的生活史和生态。通过同时对一系列物种进行研究，我们也将能够感受到我们结论的普遍性，以及我们需要在多大程度上共同理解数量和性状的变化。