SGER: Resource Assessment, Traditionality, and Catastrophic Change

华纳博士最近的工作表明，通过一系列的实验操作，传统和资源评估的相互作用是一个强大的力量，在交配系统的模式物种，Thalassoma bifasciatum（珊瑚礁鱼）的决定。只有当整个种群被迁移和替换而打破传统时，世代使用的交配地点才会改变到新的地点。在正常情况下，网站的使用受到传统的限制。交配地点的物理属性可能会随着时间的推移而改变，但种群几乎没有机会重新适应任何新的资源分布，因为在试图在非传统地点交配时存在初始责任。这些结果意义重大，因为它们挑战了行为生态学的当前思想：交配系统可能无法从当前资源分布的测量中预测。这项工作导致一些预测的作用，灾难性的干扰，在这个交配系统。如果种群传统被自然灾害打破，重新建立的交配系统应该与现有的可测量资源相关联。在雨果飓风发生之前，华纳博士绘制了圣克鲁瓦蒂格湾19个补丁珊瑚礁上交配地点的分布图。他还在其中五个珊瑚礁上测量了这些地点以及其他适合但未使用的地点的物理特征。有许多未使用的场地与使用过的场地具有相同的物理特性。如果华纳博士发表的预测是正确的，飓风过后将出现一系列新的交配地点，这些地点将具有明显的物理特征，将它们与珊瑚礁上的其他结构区分开来。这是一个前所未有的机会来测试一个假设，特别是灾难性事件对交配系统的影响。

Recent work by Dr. Warner has shown, through a series of experimental manipulations, that the interaction of tradition and resource assessment is a potent force in mating system determination in a model species, Thalassoma bifasciatum (a coral reef fish). Mating sites that have been in use for generations change to new locations only when tradition is broken by removing and replacing the entire population. Under normal circumstances, site usage is constrained by tradition. The physical attributes of mating site may change over time, but the population has little opportunity to reset to any new distribution of resources because there is an initial liability in attempting to mate at a nontraditional site. These results are significant because they challenge current thinking in behavioral ecology: mating systems may not be predictable from measurements of the current distribution of resources. This work leads to some predictions about the role of catastrophic disturbance in this mating system. If population traditions are broken by a natural catastrophe, the mating system which is reestablished should be correlated with existing measurable resources. Prior to the occurrence of Hurricane Hugo, Dr. Warner had mapped the distribution of mating sites on 19 patch reefs in Teague Bay, St. Croix. On five of these reefs he had also measured the physical characteristics of these sites as well as other sites that were suitable but were not used. There were many unused sites that had the same physical characteristics as sites that were used. If Dr. Warner's published predictions are correct, a new suite of mating sites will arise after the hurricane, and these will posses physical characteristics that will clearly distinguish them from other structures on the reef. This is an unprecedented opportunity to test a hypothesis that referred specifically to the effects of catastrophic events on mating systems.