Using Physiological Structure to Model Individual Production: A Simulation and Test

美丽9728470自然界中的动物，就像人一样，会对如何利用它们的时间做出复杂的决定。这些决定影响到他们获得的食物数量，以及他们如何使用这些食物来种植和繁殖，这反过来又影响到人口的规模和健康。如果PI能够理解动物环境的变化如何影响时间使用和生产(生长和繁殖)之间的联系，那么PI可以更好地预测动物对环境变化(自然的或人为的)的反应。也许理解环境变化将如何影响动物的最好方法是通过实验改变环境并观察它们的反应。在这个项目中，PI将试验性地增加对自由放养的木材响尾蛇的小样本的摄食，并观察它们相对于未操纵的对照组在行为、生理和生产方面的变化。木材响尾蛇是一种很好的研究动物，因为在外科手术放置的小型无线电发射器的帮助下，我们可以在自然环境中观察复杂的行为和生理。该项目将在位于阿肯色州西北部的非营利性自然科学教育中心奥扎克自然科学中心进行。项目活动将直接促进小学和高中阶段的儿童、大学本科生以及硕士和博士水平的研究生的教育。

Beaupre 9728470 Animals in nature, like people, make complex decisions about how they use their time. These decisions influence the amount of food they obtain, and how they use that food to grow and reproduce, which in turn, influences the size and health of the population. If the PIs can understand how changes in an animal's environment affect connections between time use and production (growth and reproduction) then the PIs can make better predictions about the responses of animals to environmental change (natural, or human-caused). Perhaps the best way to understand how environmental change will influence animals is to experimentally change the environment and observe their responses. In this project, the PI will experimentally increase feeding in a small sample of free-ranging timber rattlesnakes, and observe changes in their behavior, physiology and production relative to an unmanipulated control group. The timber rattlesnake is an excellent study animal because with the help of small surgically placed radio transmitters we can observe complex behavior and physiology in a natural setting. This project will be conducted at the Ozark Natural Science Center, a non-profit natural science education center in Northwest Arkansas. Project activities will directly contribute to the education of children at the grade school and high school levels, college undergraduates, and graduate students at the Master's and Ph.D. levels.