Personality, Plasticity, and Resource Polymorphisms

作为人类，我们都表现出行为上的差异，这些差异赋予了我们独特的性格或品质，尽管我们的行为是灵活的。在过去的几年里，行为科学家积累了大量的证据，表明同一种群的野生动物在个性特征上也不同，如一般活动、社交、大胆和在新情况下冒险的意愿。这些科学家还表明，性格上的差异可能与野外行为有关，这些行为对动物的生存和繁殖非常重要，包括觅食、交配和寻找新的居住地。试图了解造成这些个性差异的遗传(天性)和环境(后天)机制是一个活跃的研究领域。我们对小溪鲑鱼(也称为小河鲑鱼)的研究考察了性格差异如何导致动物种群分化为不同亚群的趋势，这些亚群在哪里吃什么，身体和大脑的大小和形状不同。这种现象被称为资源多态，普遍存在于来自北方溪流和湖泊的鱼类中。资源多态代表着独特的生物多样性，可以导致新物种的进化。在这个物种，特别是鱼类的全球消失的时代，理解造成资源多态的机制是必要的。我们的研究将分三个步骤考察人格和资源多态的共同创造。它将首先研究生命早期的个性差异以及影响这些差异的内在因素(例如，精力状态)。然后它会问，这些个性差异是否使个人倾向于采用特定的觅食方式和地点。最后，它将测试各种机制，这些机制可以创建行为反馈循环，从而导致在资源多态中看到的行为和身体形态的差异。例如，在特定风格或地点觅食可以引起体型的变化，从而强化这种觅食风格，从而使不同觅食风格的个体形成非常不同的身体形态。通过这种方式，资源多态提供了一个很好的机会来理解创造动物个性的机制，以及促进和限制行为灵活性的因素。同时，提出的理解个性差异的反馈模型提供了一个极好的机会来了解导致资源多态的机制，这种方式应该有助于我们保护这种迷人的生物多样性形式。

As humans, we all exhibit behavioural differences that give us a distinctive character or quality, even though our behaviour is flexible. We call these differences personality.In the past few years, behavioural scientists have accumulated a lot of evidence that wild animals from the same population also differ in personality traits, such as general activity, sociability, boldness, and willingness to take risks in new situations. These scientists have also shown that differences in personality can be related to field behaviours important to an animal's survival and reproduction, including foraging, mating, and finding a new place to live. Trying to understand the genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) mechanisms creating these personality differences is an area of active research.Our research on brook charr (also called brook trout) examines how personality differences contribute to the tendency for populations of animals to diverge into subgroups differing in where and what they eat, and the size and form of their body and brains. This phenomenon, called resource polymorphism, occurs commonly in fishes from northern streams and lakes. Resource polymorphisms represent unique biodiversity that can lead to the evolution of new species. Understanding the mechanisms creating resource polymorphisms is needed in this time of global losses of species, especially fish. Our research will examine the co-creation of personality and resource polymorphisms in three steps. It will first examine personality differences early in life and the intrinsic factors (e.g. energy state) influencing these differences. It will then ask if these personality differences predispose individuals to adopt a specific foraging style and location. Lastly, it will test a variety of mechanisms that could create behavioural feedback loops that can cause the divergence in behaviour and body form seen in resource polymorphisms. For example, foraging in a particular style or location can induce changes in body shape that reinforce that foraging style, such that individuals with differing foraging styles develop very different body forms. In this way, resource polymorphisms offer an excellent opportunity to understand the mechanisms creating animal personalities, and the factors facilitating and constraining flexibility in behaviour. At the same time, feedback models proposed to understand divergence in personality provide an excellent opportunity to learn about the mechanisms responsible for resource polymorphism, in ways that should help us preserve this fascinating form of biodiversity.