The role of behavioural plasticity in shaping the responses of organisms to the cumulative effects of multiple stressors.

行为调节着个体与其环境之间的相互作用。在影响动物应对快速环境变化的能力的特征中，行为可塑性（个体如何在不同环境和时间内改变其反应能力）在动物如何应对环境变化中起着重要作用。鉴于个体经常同时面对多个压力源，确定个体对压力源的反应差异如何以及为什么会影响表现、繁殖和生存是具有挑战性的。我的研究项目旨在应用和测试关于如何以及为什么一些个体比其他人更好地应对变化的环境的信息，以预测快速环境变化的未来发展将如何影响人口规模和稳定性。作为目标，我的研究小组将确定：1)行为可塑性的变化-由探索倾向，新恐惧症和攻击（ENA）定义-如何被关键环境（非生物和生物）因素改变；2)反应性的变化是否影响表现（觅食、反捕食、运动行为）；3)在多种生态情景下，这些响应-性能关系对生长、繁殖和生存的影响。为了实现我的研究目标，我将在生态系统中使用相关的和新兴的压力源，其特征是人为引起的快速环境变化。利用在半野生到野生条件下饲养的当地黄鲈种群（Perca flavescens），我将研究在多种现实世界压力源（温度、氧饱和度和重金属毒性）下，行为类型（ENA）的个体内部和个体之间的变化，并研究这些压力源如何影响个体的运动生态（空间分布模式），与风险敏感觅食、生长和生存有关。利用被批准重新引入安大略湖的大西洋洄游鲑鱼（Salmo salar）种群，我将探索在圈养和半自然环境下，种群在行为和生理（皮肤色素/应激激素）应对方面的相关差异，然后评估它们在不同的捕食和竞争风险下有效觅食的能力，以评估种群内部的可塑性是否不同，并赋予种群之间的不同适合度。利用已知遗传谱系的太平洋奇努克鲑鱼（Oncorhynchus tshawytscha）水产养殖种群，我将调查已经具有明显行为特征的雄性繁殖策略（运动鞋与正常雄性）是否会被能够影响鱼类生长速度和竞争能力的饲养环境所改变。对于每个项目，我将开发基于个体或系统动力学的模型，这两种模型都是理解复杂系统在空间或时间上的行为的理想方法，以确定在各种时空或管理生态情景中，压力源介导的反应中的个性如何扩大到人口水平的影响。了解个体对不同压力源的行为反应如何不同，以及这些差异如何在可变环境中相互作用并影响种群持久性，对于理解某些物种如何以及为什么在新环境中成功或失败至关重要。将这些不同的基于个体的方法与生态情景建模相结合，可以帮助确定暴露于多种环境压力源的人群所涉及的关键过程和驱动力，从而为基础生态和经济相关的应用研究做出重大贡献。

Behaviour mediates interactions between an individual and its environment. Of the traits that influence the ability of an animal to cope in response to rapid environmental change, behavioural plasticity (how an individual varies in its responsiveness across contexts and over time) plays an important role in how animals respond to environmental change. Given that individuals constantly face multiple stressors at the same time, it is challenging to determine how and why individual variation in responsiveness to stressors influences performance, reproduction and survival. My research program aims to apply and test information on how and why some individuals respond better than others to altered environments to predict how future developments in rapid environmental change will affect population size and stability. As objectives, my research group will determine: 1) how variation in behavioural plasticity - as defined by Exploration tendency, Neophobia, and Aggression (ENA) - is altered by key environmental (abiotic and biotic) factors; 2) whether variation in responsiveness affects performance (foraging, anti-predator, movement behaviour); and 3) the consequences of these response-performance relationships to growth, reproduction and survival modeled under multiple ecological scenarios. To pursue my research objectives I will be using relevant and emerging stressors within ecological systems characterized as human-induced rapid environmental change. Using a local population of yellow perch (Perca flavescens) raised under a spectrum of semi-wild to wild conditions, I will examine both within- and among-individual variation in behavioural types (ENA) under multiple real-world stressors (temperature, oxygen saturation and heavy-metal toxicity), and investigate how these stressors affect the movement ecology (spatial distribution patterns) of individual perch in relation to risk-sensitive foraging, their growth and survival. Using stocks of lake-bound Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) approved for reintroduction into Lake Ontario, I will explore stock-related differences in behavioural and physiological (skin-pigmentation/stress hormones) coping under both captive and semi-natural settings, and then assess their ability to forage effectively under varying risks of predation and competition to evaluate if plasticity within stocks differs and confers differential fitness between stocks. Using an aquaculture-based stock of Pacific Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) with known genetic pedigree, I will investigate whether male reproductive strategies (sneaker vs. normal males), that already possess distinct behavioural characteristics, can be altered by the rearing environment capable of affecting fish growth rates and competitive abilities. For each project I will develop individual-based or system-dynamics models, both ideal methodologies in understanding the behaviour of complex systems over space or time, to determine how individuality in stressor-mediated responses scale up to population-level effects during various spatiotemporal or management-ecological scenarios. An understanding of how individuals differ in their behavioural response to different stressors, and how these differences might interact within variable environments and affect population persistence is crucial for understanding how and why certain species succeed or fail in novel environments. Combining these different individual-based approaches with ecological-scenario modelling can help to identify the key processes and driving forces involved in populations exposed to multiple environmental stressors, significantly contributing to both fundamental ecological and economically relevant applied research.