Ecology and Behavior of Darwin's Finches on the Galapagos Islands

生物学家对小而孤立的种群很感兴趣，因为它们有可能成为新物种。在没有人类干预的情况下，它们的进化和生态命运由它们的遗传变异决定，而遗传变异又由它们的繁殖结构决定。拟议中的研究将检查加拉帕戈斯群岛上两个小种群的达尔文雀的繁殖结构。达尔文雀非常适合这项研究，因为它们生活在不受干扰的环境中，它们的进化已经得到了很好的研究。选择的两个种群是东方地鼠和scandens地鼠。它们居住在达芙妮梅杰岛上，它们的温顺使它们能够建立血统；通过扩展这些谱系，并通过观察跟踪已知个体的命运，PI将确定近交和杂交的环境和频率，以及两者的适应度结果。像这些达尔文雀这样的小种群引起了保护生物学家的兴趣，因为它们很容易灭绝。本研究结果对其他地区的小型和濒危动物种群的保护和管理具有潜在的应用价值。人口规模小的人口和遗传后果越来越多地被纳入易灭绝人口的模型，一方面是为了确定生活史中脆弱的组成部分，另一方面是为了确定长期的、最小的、可行的人口规模。研究人群很小，而且数量波动。通过这项研究，我们将了解它们的遗传结构。如果我们要可靠地评估受到干扰的其他种群的未来走向，了解这些种群在自然条件下的动态是必不可少的。

Small and isolated populations are of interest to biologists because they have the potential to become new species. In the absence of human intervention their evolutionary and ecological fates are determined by their genetic variation, and this in turn is governed by their breeding structure. The proposed research will examine the breeding structure of two small populations of Darwin's Finches on one of the Galapagos Islands. Darwin's Finches are unusually suitable for this investigation because they live in undisturbed environments, and their evolution has been well studied. The two chosen populations are Geospiza fortis and G. scandens. Their residency on the island of Daphne Major and their tameness has allowed the establishment of pedigrees; and by extending these pedigrees and following the fates of known individuals by observation, the PI's will establish the circumstances and frequencies of inbreeding and of hybridization, and the fitness consequences of both. Small populations like these Darwin's Finches are of interest to conservation biologists because they are liable to become extinct. Results of this study will have potential applications to the conservation and management of small and endangered populations of animals elsewhere. Demographic and genetic consequences of small population sizes are increasingly being incorporated into the modeling of extinction-prone populations in order to identify vulnerable components of life histories on the one hand, and long-term, minimum, viable population sizes on the other. The study populations are small and fluctuate in numbers. With this study their genetic structure will be understood. Understanding the dynamics of such populations under natural conditions is essential if we are to reliably assess the future course of other populations which are subjected to disturbances.