DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Behavioral Compensation for Limits to Ecophysiological Plasticity in Dynamic Environments

在这项研究中，研究人员将研究动物如何利用行为来弥补它们在生理上适应环境变化能力的局限性。行为可以用来完全避免暴露在充满压力的环境中，或者可以改变它来保存能量以应对压力。这项研究将研究生活在河口的幼鲨的这些行为过程，以及相应的生理机制。河口是海水和淡水混合的区域，是高度动态的环境，代表着鲨鱼的盐分压力梯度，但一些鲨鱼物种将这些栖息地用作幼体育儿区，以避免捕食并获得食物资源。整个项目有三个具体目标：1.利用现代遥测技术检查鲨鱼的运动与盐度的关系；2.在实验室测量鲨鱼对野生鲨鱼特有的盐度变化以及对更极端的盐度变化的生理反应；3.利用分子技术识别参与盐度挑战反应的蛋白质，这些蛋白质是过度盐分胁迫的标志。预计行为在减轻环境变化对鲨鱼的影响方面发挥着重要作用，研究人员将确定生理补偿极限的标记，以引发对环境变化的行为反应。这种跨学科的方法将广泛适用于其他动物，特别是考虑到人类对环境的影响不断扩大，以及对全球变化的复杂影响的认识日益增强。该项目将有助于培训加州大学戴维斯分校的一名研究生和几名本科生，结果将通过PI的基于网络的蛋白质组学数据库传播。

In this study researchers will examine the ways in which animals use behavior to compensate for limitations on their ability to adapt physiologically to changes in their environment. Behavior can be used to avoid exposure to stressful environments altogether, or it may be altered to conserve energy in order to deal with stress. This study will examine these behavioral processes, and the corresponding physiological mechanisms, in juvenile sharks living in estuaries. Estuaries, areas where seawater and freshwater mix, are highly dynamic environments that represent gradients of salinity stress for sharks, yet a number of shark species use these habitats as juvenile nursery areas to avoid predation and gain access to food resources. The overall project has three specific goals: 1. to examine the movements of sharks in relation to salinity using modern telemetry techniques, 2. to measure the physiological responses of sharks in the laboratory to salinity changes characteristic of sharks in the wild as well as to more extreme salinity changes, and 3. to use molecular techniques to identify proteins involved in the response to salinity challenge and that serve as markers of excessive salinity stress. It is anticipated that behavior plays a significant role in mitigating the effects of environmental change on sharks, and the researchers will identify markers of limits to physiological compensation that elicit behavioral responses to environmental change. This interdisciplinary approach will be widely applicable to other animals, especially considering expanding anthropogenic influences on the environment and growing awareness of the complex effects of global change. This project will contribute to training of one graduate and several undergraduate students at UC Davis, and results will be disseminated via the PI's web-based proteomics database.