Dissertation Research: Variation in Diet and Functional Morphology Among Populations of Cyprinodon variegatus in the Everglades National Park

9600108。海尔斯顿生物对不断变化的环境中的生活有广泛的适应能力。在鱼类中，颌骨的形态通常与饮食有关，饮食因季节和种群而异。将环境变化与形态变化联系起来，可以深入了解自然界观察到的特征变化的原因。在这项由该奖项资助的研究中，将对佛罗里达州海湾红树林岛屿上的剑鱼(Cyprint Odon Varegatus)种群进行研究，以评估饮食的时间和空间变化产生并保持颌骨形状和大小差异的方式。将记录生活在两个不同栖息地(海湾和岛屿池)的剑鱼种群在食物资源和食物利用方面的环境差异。然后将分析这些种群之间摄食形态的差异，以阐明环境和遗传因素对形态差异的影响。在一项相关的研究中，将评估特定饮食喂养效率的发育基础。这项研究将阐明种群生物学中一个长期存在的问题，即形态变异是如何在不断变化的环境中产生和保持的。由于这种变化为物种提供了应对环境变化的燃料，因此这项研究对保护生物学和栖息地管理具有重要意义。

9600108. HAIRSTON Organisms have a wide range of adaptations to life in a changing environment. Among fish, jaw morphology is often related to diet, which varies between seasons and populations. Linking environmental variation with morphological variation can provide insights into the causes of character variation observed in nature. In research funded by this award, killifish (Cyprinodon variegatus) populations on mangrove islands in Florida Bay will be studied to assess the ways in which temporal and spatial variation in diet produce and maintain differences in jaw shape and size. Environmental variation in food resources and food utilization by populations of killifish inhabiting two distinct habitats (bay and island pools) will be documented. Variation in feeding morphology among these populations will then be assayed to elucidate the environmental and genetic contributions to morphological variation. In a related study, the developmental basis of diet-specific feeding efficiency will be assessed. The research will shed light on a longstanding issue in population biology, how morphological variation is produced and maintained in a changing environment. Because such variation provides the fuel for species to cope with environmental change, the research has implications for conservation biology and habitat management.