布氏田鼠聚群的能量学、社会缓冲效应及其神经基础

温带地区的小型哺乳动物为适应季节性环境，在长期进化过程中形成了一系列生理和行为适应策略。聚群行为（huddling）是动物适应低温环境的一种重要策略。关于聚群的野外生态学研究较多，但其生理学基础非常缺乏。本项目以具有良好研究基础的群居性的布氏田鼠为模型，利用整体代谢产热、体温实时监控等技术，从生理、生化、行为、分子及神经等不同层次，研究不同环境温度下布氏田鼠聚群行为的产热效应、能量节约效应、社会缓冲效应及对神经可塑性的影响，根据能量收益和代价建立能量效应模型以预测不同环境下的最适群体大小，以了解非冬眠小型哺乳动物在季节性环境中的生存适应策略，揭示聚群行为进化的生理学基础。

Small mammals living in the temperate area have evolved a series of physiological and behavioral adaptive strategies in response to the seasonal environments. Huddling is a social thermoregulatory behavior which is important for living at low ambient temperature. Most huddling studies focus on wild ecology observations, but lack the physiological bases. This project uses the social model of Brandt’s voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) which we have extensive studied in ecophysiology, to determone the effects of huddling on social thermoregulation, energy saving, social buffering and neuronal plasticity from the levels of behavior, physiology, biochemistry, molecular and neuroscience. We will also develop an energy effect model based on energy benefit and cost to predict the optimal group size at different temperatures. Our findings will be of great value for understanding the adaptive strategies for survival under the seasonal environments in non-hibernating small mammals. It will also reveal the physiological basis of huddling evolution for the social mammals.