Finding and establishing new subpopulations

寻找并建立新的亚群

• 批准号: 122215-2006
• 负责人: Nams, Vilis
• 金额: $ 0.98万
• 依托单位: Nova Scotia Agricultural College
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=366540
• 关键词: Finding; establishing; new; subpopulations

When a subpopulation of animals goes extinct, then residual individuals disperse in search of new habitat patches to start new subpopulations. I plan to study three steps of this process - searching, discovering habitat patches, and establishing subpopulations in those habitat patches.     I propose to find out which types of movement patterns are most successful for finding habitat patches, how this success depends on the distribution of habitat patches, which movement patterns do small mammals actually use when travelling in unknown habitats, and how the type of movement pattern used depends on habitat type. I will also measure how perceptual range (from how far away they can detect the habitat patches) varies with habitat and distance from home range for small mammals in experimentally manipulated habitats.     The field experiments will be carried out using small mammals (voles and mice). These animals are cheap and easy to work with, allowing us to get large sample sizes quite quickly. The animals would be tracked using a combination of radio-telemetry and thread-spooling. Movement paths would be analysed using a newly-developed statistical technique that differentiates between random and directed movement.     Once animals find a new habitat patch, they need to establish a new subpopulation. The third part of my research will look at the establishment of new subpopulations in variable environments. When subpopulations are small, random events have a large impact on the chance of success.     I also propose to find out how population size affects survival probability, and how variability in conditions affects survival rate.     This work would be carried out using beavers. The random events are storms that wash out dams. When dams are small, they are easily washed out by storms. I propose to survey dams over a large area, and then compare the success of the dams from one season to the next, as a function of dam size and size of storms.

当一个动物亚群灭绝时，剩余的个体就会分散，寻找新的栖息地以形成新的亚群。我计划研究这个过程的三个步骤——搜索、发现栖息地斑块，以及在这些栖息地斑块中建立亚群。     我建议找出哪些类型的运动模式对于寻找栖息地斑块最成功，这种成功如何取决于栖息地斑块的分布，小型哺乳动物在未知栖息地旅行时实际使用哪些运动模式，以及所使用的运动模式类型如何取决于栖息地类型。我还将测量实验操纵栖息地中的小型哺乳动物的感知范围（从它们可以检测到栖息地斑块的距离）如何随栖息地和距居住范围的距离而变化。     现场实验将使用小型哺乳动物（田鼠和小鼠）进行。这些动物价格便宜且易于使用，使我们能够很快获得大量样本。将使用无线电遥测和绕线技术的组合来跟踪动物。将使用新开发的统计技术来分析运动路径，该技术可以区分随机运动和定向运动。     一旦动物找到新的栖息地，它们就需要建立新的亚群。我研究的第三部分将着眼于在可变环境中建立新的亚群。当亚群体较小时，随机事件对成功机会有很大影响。     我还建议找出人口规模如何影响生存概率，以及条件的变化如何影响生存率。     这项工作将使用海狸来完成。随机事件是冲毁水坝的风暴。当水坝很小时，它们很容易被暴风雨冲垮。我建议对大面积的水坝进行调查，然后根据水坝规模和风暴规模的函数，比较一个季节与下一季节水坝的成功情况。