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迅速变化，使我们有必要完善预测动物和植物如何反应的能力。这要求我们更好地理解短期内直接作用于野生种群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生态系统变化过程。我的生态学研究方法是基于实地收集的数据，对野生种群进行深入的了解，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，它们有许多特性使它们适合生态研究，而且它们在世界范围内也受到前所未有的威胁。随着对特定物种生态学的全面了解再次成为当代保护生态学研究的前沿，我将继续专注于安大略省长点的福勒蟾蜍（Anaxyrus fowleri），作为一个富有成果的模型研究系统。因为我可以在中生态环境和半自然环境中实验饲养蝌蚪，在它们蜕变后的生活中识别所有个体蟾蜍，并且有30年集中收集的丰度，生长和运动数据可以利用，我能够解决许多基本的生态问题，使用福勒蟾蜍作为模型，在两栖动物研究中几乎是无与伦比的。在种群水平上的计划项目包括两栖动物幼虫的种间竞争和生态系统效应，伪装颜色作为一种与毒性有关的反捕食者策略，年龄和/或体型的特定选择，以及基于已知个体移动的假定亚种群之间的移民率的量化。我将与北美和欧洲的同事合作，在我的工作中对两栖动物种群的理解日益完善的基础上，对动物种群在更大范围内的动态、分布和持久性的理解进行更全面的综合。这一研究项目将为培养高素质的人才提供相当多的机会，并将有助于更全面地了解动物种群的生态学及其对环境变化的复杂反应。

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.