REU: Avian Polyandry and Lifetime Fitness

这项研究将对理解鸟类终生繁殖成功(LRS)做出重大贡献。理解LRS对于理解自然选择如何随着进化时间改变鸟类的性质是至关重要的。为了完成这项工作，建立后代的准确亲子关系是至关重要的。这将通过一种也用于人类亲子鉴定的技术--DNA指纹技术来实现。拟议的工作将评估重点人群成员中的亲子关系，并将这些结果与现有的LRS计算相结合。这项工作对保护滨鸟也很重要--它们中的许多都濒临灭绝或受到威胁。滨鸟越来越受到自然资源保护者的关注，原因有二：(1)许多滨鸟与水禽共享共同的繁殖栖息地，这是一个有严格的单一目的管理的群体；(2)滨鸟种群非常脆弱，因为它们迁徙到世界上海岸线栖息地正在经历爆炸性发展的地区和冬季。因此，种群动态和生殖产出的知识对于做出明智的保护决策至关重要。

This research will make a major contribution to understanding lifetime reproductive success in birds (LRS). An understanding of LRS is essential for understanding how natural selection alters the nature of birds over evolutionary time. In order to do this work it is essential to establish the precise parentage of offspring. This will be accomplished with a technique that is also used in human parentage determination -- DNA fingerprinting. The proposed work will assess parentage among members of a focal population and integrate these findings with existing calculations of LRS. This work is also of importance to the conservation of shorebirds -- many of which are endangered or threatened. Shorebirds are of increasing concern to conservationists for two reasons: (1) many share common breeding habitat with waterfowl, a group for which there is intense single-purpose management, and (2) shorebird populations are highly vulnerable as the birds migrate to and winter in areas of the world where shoreline habitats are undergoing explosive development. Knowledge of population dynamics and reproductive output, therefore, is essential for the making of wise conservation decisions.