REU: The Ecology of Inducible Defenses: Competition, Predation, and Geographic Variation

针对捕食者的诱导防御策略在海洋、淡水和陆地生境中明显重要；然而，只有在底栖海洋系统中，对竞争对手的诱导防御才成为重要的相互作用机制。除了具有重要的生态意义外，诱导防御是分析表型可塑性生物内部分配变化以及防御和攻击进化的有力工具。本研究将采用实验方法分析诱导防御的近似和最终机制，目标如下：1。确定对捕食者（刺）和竞争者（匍匐茎）的诱导反应的大小特异性成本和收益，独立和联合。2. 利用碳（14C放射性同位素）的共同货币，确定与对捕食者和竞争对手的诱导防御相关的高度局部生长和繁殖转移的易位模式。3. 评估两种不同地理和生产力制度下对捕食者（刺）和竞争者（匍匐茎）的诱导防御频率，最终目的是确定诱导防御的相对生物选择压力。

Inducible defensive strategies against predators are demonstrably important in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats; however, only in benthic marine systems have inducible defenses against competitors emerged as important mechanisms of interaction. In addition to their ecological importance, inducible defenses are powerful tools for the analysis of allocation shifts within phenotypically plastic organisms and of the evolution of defense and aggression. This investigation will employ an experimental approach to analyze proximate and ultimate mechanisms of inducible defenses with the following three goals: 1. To determine the size-specific costs and benefits of inducible responses to predators (spines) and competitors (stolons), independently and in combination. 2. To determine the translocation patterns underlying the highly localized growth and reproduction shifts associated with inducible defenses to predators and competitors using a common currency of carbon (14C radioisotope). 3. To assess the frequency of inducible defenses to predators (spines) and competitors (stolons) in two different geographic and productivity regimes with the ultimate goal of determining the relative biological selection pressures for the inducible defenses.