Winter Energetics and Reproduction in a Small Non-hibernating High-latitude Mammal: the Red-backed Vole

阿维柯林啮齿动物（田鼠和旅鼠）很少在冬季进行实地研究。 他们不迁移。他们不使用麻痹或冬眠来保存能量。 然而，它们是北极和亚北极生态系统中数量最多的小型哺乳动物，在漫长、黑暗、寒冷和食物有限的冬季生存和繁殖。 没有关于这些动物在冬季的能量需求的数据，没有关于其食物质量季节性变化的数据，只有关于夏季以外繁殖的间接数据。 该项目将对阿拉斯加的代表性物种--北方红背田鼠--进行实地研究。 它将大大提高我们对北极最有影响力的类群之一的冬季生存和繁殖机制的认识。 田鼠和旅鼠的人口规模是生态学家在北极和亚北极生态系统工作的根本利益，这一直是背后的驱动力，寻找机制，支持他们的人口周期。 由于缺乏关于冬季存活率和繁殖率的数据，关于种群循环的生态工作受到阻碍。 该项目将产生这些数据，从而提高我们预测夏季田鼠种群的能力。 这将有助于我们更好地预测目前阿拉斯加的变暖趋势对田鼠和旅鼠种群冬季繁殖和生存的影响。 该项目的目的是测试的假设，即北方红背田鼠改变他们的能源使用和收购的方式，在冬季，有利于他们的生存，这些充满活力的变化，使一个子集的人口在此期间繁殖。 现场数据的身体状况，生殖状态和现场代谢率将获得通过一年的自由生活的田鼠在楚加奇州森林，阿拉斯加和这些测量和环境参数之间的相关性将被确定。 平行的实验室研究将解决决定冬季生殖活动的因素。 该项目将有助于建立一个合作研究网络，以扩大阿拉斯加的相关研究基础设施。 这是阿拉斯加安克雷奇动物园和阿拉斯加安克雷奇大学（UAA）之间的首次重大合作。 正在为动物园开发展示材料和教育计划，以向公众宣传这项研究以及阿拉斯加啮齿动物的一般生物学。 研究是阿拉斯加动物园的一个新重点，它的参与代表了安克雷奇动物研究基础设施的大幅增加。该项目将在阿拉斯加的两所主要大学，阿拉斯加安克雷奇大学和阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学之间建立合作联系，并将进一步发展UAA的研究生研究。 与该项目相关的博士生在UAA和UAF共同注册，并由每个校区的教师监督。除了博士生和硕士生在该项目中就业，至少有一个UAA本科生将参加每年夏天通过UAA荣誉计划，至少有两名阿拉斯加原住民高中学生将这样做，作为生物医学系的德拉济慈/UD 0 C计划的一部分。

Arvicoline rodents (voles and lemmings) have rarely been studied in the field in winter. They do not migrate. They do not use torpor or hibernation to conserve energy. Yet they are the most abundant small mammals in arctic and sub-arctic ecosystems, surviving and reproducing in long, dark, cold and food-limited winters. There are no data on energy requirements of these animals in winter, no data on seasonal changes in their food quality and only indirect data available on reproduction outside summer. This project will be a field-based study on a representative species, the northern red-backed vole, Clethrionomys rutilus, in Alaska. It will substantially improve our knowledge of the mechanisms that underpin winter survival and reproduction in one of the most influential arctic taxa. Vole and lemming population sizes are of fundamental interest to ecologists working in arctic and sub-arctic ecosystems and this has been a driving force behind the search for the mechanisms that underpin their population cycles. Ecological work on population cycling has been handicapped by the absence of data on winter survival and reproduction rates. This project will generate those data and thus improve our ability to predict summer vole populations. It will help us to better predict the effect on winter reproduction and survival in vole and lemming populations should the current warming trend continue in Alaska. The aim of this project is to test the hypothesis that northern red-backed voles change their patterns of energy use and acquisition in winter in a manner that facilitates their survival and that these energetic changes enable a sub-set of the population to reproduce during that period. Field data on body condition, reproductive state and field metabolic rate will be obtained through the year from free-living voles in the Chugach State Forest, Alaska and correlations between these measurements and environmental parameters will be identified. Parallel laboratory studies will address what determines reproductive activity in winter. This project will help to establish a collaborative research network to broaden the related research infrastructure in Alaska. It represents the first major collaboration between the Alaska Zoo, Anchorage, Alaska, and the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). Display material and an educational program are being developed for the zoo to inform the general public about the research as well as on the general biology of Alaskan rodents. Research is a new focus for the Alaska zoo and its involvement represents a substantial increase in animal research infrastructure for Anchorage. This project will build collaborative links between Alaska's two major universities, the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and will further the development of graduate research at UAA. The PhD student associated with this project is jointly enrolled at UAA and UAF and supervised by faculty from each campus. In addition to the PhD student and masters student employed in the project, at least one UAA undergraduate student will participate every summer through the UAA honors program and at least two Alaska Native High School students will do so as part of the Biomedical Department's Della Keats/UD0C program.