The role of spatial and temporal resource variability in the life history evolution of boreal mammals

时空资源变异性在北方哺乳动物生活史演化中的作用

• 批准号: 3361-2008
• 负责人: Boutin, Stanley
• 金额: $ 4.81万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=449511
• 关键词: role; spatial; temporal; resource; variability

Canada's boreal forest, like many parts of the world, is undergoing unprecedented change due to aggressive human landuse and climate change. The challenge for ecologists is to understand how this will affect the organisms living there and from this, provide society with answers to the question of what ecosystems will look like in the future. This requires that we unravel the mechanisms whereby environmental change affects plastic responses of individuals, genotype frequency through natural selection, and population dynamics through changes in age-specific life history patterns. To do so, we must characterize the nature of individual variation (phenotypic or genotypic), how this variation relates to fitness, and most importantly, how important ecological variables (abiotic and biotic) drive these changes. This is a formidable task but it is possible to make significant advances by carefully selecting an appropriate experimental system and conducting long-term studies of individuals in the wild.

加拿大的北方森林，像世界上许多地方一样，正在经历前所未有的变化，由于积极的人类土地利用和气候变化。 生态学家面临的挑战是了解这将如何影响生活在那里的生物，并由此为社会提供未来生态系统的答案。 这就要求我们揭示环境变化影响个体可塑性反应的机制，通过自然选择影响基因型频率，通过特定年龄生活史模式的变化影响种群动态。 要做到这一点，我们必须描述个体变异的性质（表型或基因型），这种变异与适应性的关系，最重要的是，重要的生态变量（非生物和生物）如何驱动这些变化。 这是一项艰巨的任务，但通过仔细选择适当的实验系统并对野生个体进行长期研究，有可能取得重大进展。