Origins of novel biodiversity

我研究了促进和限制水生动物自然种群中新生物多样性形成的因素。对于不同种类的个体是如何在自然种群中首次出现的，以及这些不同种类的个体是如何在不同的生态位中多样化的，我们知之甚少。加拿大的湖泊是生物多样性形成和生态多样化的天然实验室，因为它们年轻，鱼类种类相对较少，因此提供了其他地方找不到的多样化机会。许多湖泊鱼类包括多种生态类型，利用不同的资源和湖泊栖息地。我通过询问促进和限制多样化的因素来研究这些生态型是如何形成的。研究将从三个方面关注导致多样化的原因。首先，我们将评估个体是否通过在其饮食中添加其他类型的猎物来应对竞争，以及这是否以及如何受到个体之间细微差异的影响。其次，我们将检验这样一种观点，即个人增加资源专业化可能会导致专注于同一资源的个人之间的竞争加剧，从而可能会抵制进一步的专业化。第三，我们将评估在食物资源竞争中，对相似个体表达的攻击行为是否与对不同个体的行为有遗传联系，以便更好地理解在食物资源竞争中直接相互作用的动物的社会行为是如何进化的。这些项目都将提供关于竞争如何促进和可能限制种群中新多样性形成的见解，因此将为竞争在生物多样性形成中的作用提供新的见解。这些项目还将促进本科生和研究生的智力发展，让他们参与研究的各个方面，包括实验室和涉及比较和操作实验的实地工作培训，数据分析，解决问题以及书面和口头交流。了解种群中生物多样性的起源最终将有助于更有效的保护和管理工作，因为变异会影响种群对环境变化的反应。最后，理论表明，种群内新的生物多样性可以使种群快速进化，从而部分抵消正在发生的生物多样性损失，但评估这一观点需要了解种群内生物多样性的本质。

I study the factors that promote and limit the formation of novel biodiversity in natural populations of aquatic animals. We know very little about how different kinds of individuals first arise in natural populations and how these different kinds diversify into different ecological niches. Canadian lakes are a natural laboratory of biodiversity formation and ecological diversification because they are young, have relatively few fish species, and so provide opportunities to diversify that are not found elsewhere. Numerous lake fish species include multiple ecotypes that use different resources and lake habitats. I study how these ecotypes form by asking what factors promote and limit diversification. The research will focus on what causes diversification in three ways. First, we will evaluate whether individuals respond to competition by adding alternates types of prey to their diets and whether and how this is affected by slight differences among individuals. Second, we will test the idea that increasing resource specialization by individuals may cause increased competition among individuals that specialize on the same resources and that may resist further specialization. Third, we will evaluate if aggressive behavior expressed towards similar individuals is genetically linked to behavior towards dissimilar individuals in contests over food resources in order to better understand how social behaviors evolve in animals that directly interact with each other during competition over food resources. These projects will all provide insights into how competition promotes and possibly limits the formation of novel diversity in a population and so will provide new insights into the role of competition in biodiversity formation. These projects will also contribute to the intellectual development of undergraduate and graduate students by having them participate in all aspects of the research including, training in laboratory and field work involving comparative and manipulate experiments, data analysis, problem-solving and both written and oral communication. Understanding the origins of biodiversity in populations will ultimately contribute to more effective conservation and management efforts because variation shapes population responses to environmental change. Lastly, theory suggests that novel biodiversity within populations can prime populations to rapidly evolve in ways that may partially offset ongoing biodiversity losses, but evaluating this idea requires understanding the nature of biodiversity within populations.