CRB: Interactive Effects of Parasitism and Food Supplementation in a Natural Avian Population

9806765多布森了解传染病在自然种群中所起的作用是种群生态学的关键问题之一。这项研究将检验“类似疟疾”的原生动物寄生虫对山白冠麻雀（zoonotrichia leucophrys oriantha）繁殖和生存的影响。这项研究利用了20多年来对内华达山脉白冠麻雀种群生物学和行为的研究成果。在泰奥加山口的繁殖种群中，几乎所有的个体都有单独编号的腿带，它们以前的繁殖历史是已知的。该项目将通过研究血液寄生虫如何影响观察到的人口出生率和存活率，扩大我们目前对人口统计学的了解。这将有助于确定这些传染病在确定各年之间人口数量变化方面所起的作用。然后将使用抗寄生虫药物治疗受感染和未受感染的个体，并检查由此产生的生存和繁殖力变化。宿主营养在决定个体对血液寄生虫感染的反应方面起着至关重要的作用。该研究的第二个主要组成部分是使用一系列补充喂养实验来检查营养与宿主在血液寄生虫挑战下生存能力之间的相互作用。因此，这项工作将为了解自然种群中营养、传染病和宿主种群生物学之间的相互作用提供重要见解。

9806765 Dobson Understanding the role that infectious diseases play in natural populations is one of the key questions in population ecology. This study will examine the impact that 'malaria-like' protozoan parasites have on the reproduction and survival of mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha). The study takes advantage of more than two decades of work on the population biology and behavior of white-crowned sparrows in the Sierra Nevada. Nearly all of the individuals in the breeding population at Tioga Pass are marked with individually numbered leg-bands and their previous breeding history is known. This project will extend our present understanding of the population's demography by examining how blood parasites affect the observed birth and survival rates for the population. This will allow determination of the role that these infectious diseases play in determining changes in population numbers between years. Antiparasitic drugs will then be used to treat both infected and uninfected individuals and to examine the resultant changes in survival and fecundity. Host nutrition plays a crucial role in determining how an individual responds to infection with blood parasites. A second major component of the study uses a series of supplemental feeding experiments to examine the interaction between nutrition and the host's ability to survive a challenge by a blood parasite. Thus the work will provide important insights into the interaction between nutrition, infectious diseases and host population biology in natural populations.