Doctoral Dissertation: The Link Between Parental Care Behavior and Recruitment in Largemouth Bass

这项拟议的研究的目的是检验父母的照顾行为对招募(这里定义为一年班到一岁的存活)大口黑鱼的重要性。大口黑鱼雄性筑巢，向雌性筑巢，与它们一起产卵，然后在它们从新产卵发育到独立的0岁幼崽的过程中提供照顾。利用微卫星DNA标记产生的行为个体差异和巢穴特有的DNA指纹将被用来确定每个巢穴对存活于第一个生长季的幼鸟群体的相对贡献，以及照顾行为对这些贡献的影响。父母对幼鸟保护的差异可能会导致不同巢穴对捕食者的脆弱性存在差异，然而，这种巢水平差异对招募的影响尚未得到测试。本研究旨在解决种群生态学中日益增长的需要，即检查重要的种群过程(如招募)与个体行为差异之间的联系。此外，确定负责确定鱼类捕捞成功与否的机制对于商业和休闲渔业的适当管理至关重要。更具体地说，这项研究将促进我们对父母照顾在大口黑鱼招募中的作用的理解。

The goal of the proposed study is to examine the importance of parental care behavior to recruitment (defined here as survival of a year class to age-1) of largemouth bass. Largemouth bass males build nests, court females to those nests, spawn with them, and then provide care for their young as they develop from newly spawned eggs to independence as age-0 juveniles. Individual variation in behavior and nest-specific DNA fingerprints, generated with microsatellite DNA markers, will be used to determine both the relative contribution of each nest to the population of juveniles surviving their first growing season and the influence of care behavior on these contributions. Variation in parental protection of young likely causes differences among nests in vulnerability to nest predators, however, the effect of this nest-level variation on recruitment has not been tested.This study addresses the growing need in population ecology for examination of links between important population processes, such as recruitment, and individual differences in behavior. Furthermore, identification of mechanisms responsible for determining recruitment success in fishes is crucial for proper management of commercial and sport fisheries. More specifically, this study will advance our understanding of the role of parental care in largemouth bass recruitment.