Studies in amphibian ecology and conservation: Fowler's Toad as a model system

全球生物多样性和环境条件的快速变化使得完善我们预测动植物将如何反应的能力变得至关重要。这要求我们更好地理解在短时间内直接在野生种群上和野生种群内运行的小规模生态进化动态过程，如生长和扩散，以及嵌入这些过程的大规模、长期的生态系统变化过程。我从事生态学研究的方法是，根据实地收集的数据，深入了解野生种群，并将这些知识作为检验有关生物多样性、变异和分布的一般理论的跳板。我在这项工作中使用的动物是两栖动物，它们具有许多特性，使它们适合进行生态学研究，而且它们在世界范围内也受到了前所未有的威胁。随着对特定物种生态的全面了解再次站在当代保护生态学研究的前沿，我将继续专注于安大略省朗波特市的Fowler‘s Toads，Anaxyus Fowleri，作为一个富有成效的模式研究系统。由于我可以在中围圈和半自然围栏中实验饲养蝌蚪，在它们变质后的整个生命过程中识别所有的个体，并拥有30年来密集收集的丰度、生长和运动数据可供参考，因此我能够以福勒蟾蜍为模型来解决许多基本的生态问题，其程度几乎是两栖动物研究中无与伦比的。在种群一级规划的项目包括两栖类幼虫的种间竞争和生态系统影响、伪装作为一种与毒性、年龄和/或大小特定选择有关的反捕食者战略，以及根据已知个体的迁徙来量化假定的亚种群之间的迁移率。在我的工作对两栖动物种群的理解越来越精细的基础上，我将与北美和欧洲的同事合作，更全面地理解更大规模的动物种群的动态、分布和持久性。这项研究计划将为培训高素质的人员提供相当大的机会，并将有助于更全面地了解动物种群的生态及其对环境变化反应的复杂性。

Rapid changes in biodiversity and environmental conditions throughout the globe make it essential to perfect our abilities to predict how animals and plants will respond. This calls upon us to better understand both the small scale eco-evolutionary dynamic processes, such as growth and dispersal, that operate directly on and within wild populations over short time frames and the large scale, long-term processes of ecosystem change in which these are embedded. My approach to ecological research is to develop a deep understanding of wild populations based on data collected in the field and use that knowledge as the springboard for testing general theories about biological diversity, variation, and distribution. The animals I use for this work are amphibians, which have many properties that make them amenable for ecological studies, and which are also threatened to an unprecedented degree worldwide. With comprehensive understanding of the ecologies of particular species once again at the forefront of contemporary research in conservation ecology, I will continue to concentrate on the Fowler's Toads, Anaxyrus fowleri, at Long Point, Ontario, as a productive model study system. Because I can raise tadpoles experimentally both in mesocosms and in semi-natural enclosures, identify all individual toads throughout their postmetamorphic lives, and have 30 years of intensively collected abundance, growth and movement data to draw upon, I am able to address many fundamental ecological questions, using Fowler's Toads as the model, to a degree practically unequaled among studies of amphibians. Planned projects at the population level include interspecific competition and ecosystem effects in amphibian larvae, camouflage colouration as an anti-predator strategy in relation to noxiousness, age and/or size specific selection, and quantification of immigration rates between putative subpopulations based on movements of known individuals. On the basis of an increasingly refined comprehension of amphibian populations stemming from my work, I will collaborate with North American and European colleagues to approach a greater synthesis of understanding about the dynamics, distribution, and persistence of animal populations at larger scales. This research program will provide considerable opportunity for training highly qualified personnel and will contribute to an ever more complete picture of the ecology of animal populations and the complexities of their responses to environmental change.