Adaptation to the temporal environment: evolutionary ecology of mammalian phenologies

从环境中获得的能量必须超过在获取过程中消耗的能量。任何产生更大能量盈余的性状将允许更大的生存和/或繁殖分配，因此代表一种适应。以这种方式，物候（即，年度生活史事件的时间）可以被视为对时间环境的适应。在能量昂贵的事件（例如，繁殖）和资源丰富的时期对鸟类和哺乳动物尤其重要。恒温使这些类群能够在地球仪上最寒冷的地区定居，但这需要大量的能量成本。因此，轻微的肥胖会产生严重的能量（以及健康）后果。虽然鸟类的物候已经吸引了科学和公众的兴趣几个世纪，我们对哺乳动物的物候的理解是比较差的。我建议调查物候变化在三个强大的野生哺乳动物研究系统。红松鼠（

Energy acquired from the environment must exceed that which is expended in its acquisition. Any trait that yields a greater energy surplus will permit greater allocation to survival and/or reproduction and, hence, represent an adaptation. In this way, phenologies (i.e., timing of annual life history events) can be viewed as adaptations to the temporal environment. Achieving proper synchrony between energetically expensive events (e.g., reproduction) and periods of resource abundance is especially consequential for birds and mammals. Endothermy has enabled these taxa to colonize some of the coldest areas on the globe, but it entails substantial energetic costs. Slight asynchrony will thus have severe energetic (and thus, fitness) consequences. While avian phenologies have attracted scientific and public interest for centuries, our understanding of mammalian phenologies is comparatively poor. I propose to investigate phenological variation in three powerful wild mammal study systems. Red squirrels (