Size Structured Models for Copepods: Applications to Optimal Body Size

海洋浮游动物成体大小随季节和纬度的变化而变化。较大的体型与较冷的季节和较高的纬度有关。由于温暖的环境和季节也倾向于处理较少的猎物，食物和温度的相互作用可能对体型有重要影响。因为体型影响着个体生态的方方面面，所以对体型的解释必须考虑到它可能是生命史上对不断变化的环境的一种适应，而这种适应的方式目前还没有得到很好的理解。本项目将开始开发一套大小分类的种群模型，并使用它们在个体适应度最大化的基础上预测最佳体型模式。这些模型将纳入特定尺寸的生长率、死亡率和繁殖率，以及这些率对温度和食物的反应。模型将根据文献中的信息进行参数化。由此产生的模型将在季节变化的温度和食物信号的背景下进行模拟，以了解最佳生活史反应如何影响种群动态。

Adult body size in marine zooplankton varies with season and latitude. Larger body sizes are associated with colder seasons and higher latitudes. Since warmer environments and seasons also tend to process less prey, the interaction of food and temperature may have important influences on body size. Because body size affects all aspects of an individual's ecology, explanations of body size must consider it a possible life history adaptation to a changing environments in ways that are not yet well understood. This project will begin the development of a set of size-classified population models, and use them to predict optimal body size patterns on the basis of maximization of individual fitness. The models will incorporate size-specific growth, mortality, and fecundity rates and the responses of those rates to temperature and food. Models will be parameterized based on information in the literature. The resulting models will be simulated in the context of seasonally varying temperature and food signals, to see how the optimal life history responses affect population dynamics.