Collaborative Research: Influences of environmental manipulation on parental programming and stress physiology in a cooperatively breeding bird

生物学和社会科学的大量研究表明，养育环境对后代发育有重要影响。这些发展效应是否适应于塑造一个人以适应当前的环境条件？联合PI将首先测试繁殖佛罗里达灌丛鸦的供应行为的变化是否会在所产生的后代中引起生理和行为上的差异。然后，该研究将跟踪这些后代的生存和繁殖，以评估由其父母的供应行为决定的发育途径是否确实与后代表型与当前环境相匹配。佛罗里达灌丛鸦以家庭为单位繁殖，年长的兄弟姐妹帮助抚养最近的一窝雏鸟。因此，关于养育环境及其影响新生成年人身心方面的潜力的研究结果将对具有复杂社会系统的其他物种（如人类）产生影响。此外，通过多方面的方法来监测重点鸟类的身体，生理和行为方面，co-PI将能够深入了解环境对后代发育的影响机制（初步数据表明，在生命早期，“应激激素”皮质酮的分泌具有重要作用）。研究的一个关键组成部分将是开发一种新的自动喂养技术，以操纵特定家庭群体的食物供应和供应率。这种方法将使用无线电频率识别来选择性地向目标个体施用食物，将为需要操纵喂养环境的研究引入一种廉价而强大的工具。co-PI以前的工作已经证明，食物补充可以增加这种受威胁物种的幼仔数量，co-PI将在这项研究中使用的改进的输送系统将是一个强大的保护工具，可供其他受威胁和濒危物种的管理者使用。 实地工作将在佛罗里达中部的阿赫博尔德生物站进行，并将为该机构的基础设施和高质量研究遗产做出贡献。最后，本研究将为一批本科生（或应届毕业生）、两名博士生和一名博士生提供培训机会。学生和两名博士后研究人员;这将有助于丰富阿赫博尔德的K-12教育计划。

A wealth of research in the biological and social sciences has demonstrated that rearing environment is an important contributor to offspring development. Are these developmental effects adaptive in terms of molding an individual to match current environmental conditions? The co-PIs will first test whether variation in provisioning behavior by breeding Florida Scrub-Jays gives rise to differences, both physiological and behavioral, in the resulting offspring. The research will then follow the survival and reproduction of these offspring to assess whether the developmental pathways determined by their parent's provisioning behaviors do indeed match the offspring phenotype to the current environment. Florida Scrub-Jays breed as family units, with older siblings helping to rear the most recent brood of nestlings. Hence, findings with respect to the rearing environment and its potential to affect physical and mental aspects of the emerging adults will have implications for other species with complex social systems (like humans). Furthermore, through a multifaceted approach to monitoring physical, physiological, and behavioral aspects of focal birds, the co-PIs will be able to provide insight into the mechanisms that drive environmental influences on offspring development (preliminary data suggest an important role for secretion of the 'stress hormone' corticosterone, early in life). A key component of the research will be the development of a new automated feeding technology to manipulated food availability and provisioning rates in particular family groups. This approach, which will use radio frequency identification to selectively administer food to targeted individuals, will introduce an inexpensive yet powerful tool for studies that require manipulation of the feeding environment. Previous work by the co-PIs has demonstrated that food supplementation can increase the number of young produced in this Threatened species, and the improved delivery system the co-PIs will use in this research will be a powerful conservation tool that can be used by managers of other threatened and endangered species. The field work will take place at Archbold Biological Station in Central Florida, and will contribute to this institution's infrastructure and legacy of high-quality research. Finally, the research will provide training opportunities for a number of undergraduates (or recent graduates), two Ph.D. students, and two post-doctoral researchers; and it will help enrich Archbold's K-12 education programs.