Personality, Plasticity, and Resource Polymorphisms

作为人类，尽管我们的行为是灵活的，但我们都表现出行为差异，这些差异赋予了我们独特的性格或品质。我们称这些差异为人格。在过去的几年里，行为科学家们积累了大量的证据，证明来自同一种群的野生动物在性格特征上也存在差异，比如一般的活动、社交能力、勇气和在新情况下承担风险的意愿。这些科学家还表明，性格的差异可能与动物生存和繁殖的重要野外行为有关，包括觅食、交配和寻找新的居住地。试图理解造成这些人格差异的遗传（自然）和环境（后天）机制是一个活跃的研究领域。我们对brook charr（也被称为brook trout）的研究考察了性格差异是如何导致动物种群分化成不同的亚群的，这些亚群在吃什么、吃什么、身体和大脑的大小和形状上都有所不同。这种现象被称为资源多态性，通常发生在北部溪流和湖泊的鱼类身上。资源多态性代表了独特的生物多样性，可以导致新物种的进化。在这个物种，特别是鱼类全球损失的时代，了解资源多态性的产生机制是必要的。我们的研究将分三个步骤来研究人格和资源多态性的共同创造。它将首先检查生命早期的人格差异和影响这些差异的内在因素（如能量状态）。然后，它会询问这些性格差异是否会使个体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性中看到的行为和体形的差异。例如，在一种特定的觅食方式或地点觅食可以引起身体形状的变化，从而加强这种觅食方式，因此不同觅食方式的个体会形成非常不同的体型。通过这种方式，资源多态性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。与此同时，为理解人格差异而提出的反馈模型为了解资源多态性的机制提供了一个极好的机会，这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.