Control of Seasonal Breeding in Diverse Habitats

大多数脊椎动物的寿命超过一年，并且在不同的栖息地受到不同程度的季节性变化的影响。动物还必须应对不可预测的事件，包括来自恶劣天气事件、捕食者和最近的人类干扰、污染、全球气候变化等的压力。作为可预测和不可预测环境变化应对机制的形态、生理和行为的变化由神经内分泌和内分泌调节，而内分泌又由环境信号触发。除了光周期的影响，人们对环境信号是如何感知并转化为神经内分泌的了解相对较少。这个项目旨在确定自然栖息地的动物如何感知环境线索，以及这些信息是如何处理的，从而产生反应。这项工作将涉及实地和实验室方法，这也为本科生和研究生提供了理想的培训机会。考虑到全球变化的影响以及生物体一般可能如何应对，这种方法是及时的。田野工作将研究北美和南美洲纬度和海拔相当的鸣禽种群的季节性程度、行为调节和对急性应激的反应。实验室研究将集中在细胞和分子水平的机制上。哪些环境线索是重要的，它们是如何被感知并转化为激素分泌的，以及这些激素随后如何发挥作用，这些都是这个项目的重点。此外，PI还为本科生和研究生开发了环境内分泌学课程(包括国际课程)，并领导了NSF研究协调网络。

Most vertebrates live more than one year and are subjected to varying degrees of seasonal changes in diverse habitats. Animals must also cope with unpredictable events that include stresses from severe weather events, predators and recently, human disturbance, pollution, global climate change etc. Changes in morphology, physiology and behavior that underlie coping mechanisms for predictable and unpredictable environmental changes are regulated by neuroendocrine and endocrine secretions that in turn are triggered by environmental signals. Except for effects of photoperiod, relatively little is known about how environmental signals are perceived and transduced into neuroendocrine secretions. This project is to determine how animals in their natural habitat perceive environmental cues and how this information is processed resulting in responses. The work will involve both field and laboratory approaches that also provide an ideal training opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students. Such an approach is timely given the impact of global change and how organisms in general may be able to cope. Fieldwork will address the degree of seasonality, behavioral modulation and responses to acute stresses in populations of songbirds at comparable latitudes and altitudes in North and South America. Laboratory studies will focus on mechanisms at cell and molecular levels. What environmental cues are important, how are they perceived and transduced into hormone secretions, and how do those hormones then act are the focus of this project. In addition, the PI has developed an environmental endocrinology course for undergraduate and graduate students (including international courses)and leads a NSF research coordination network.