Collaborative Research: Quantifying performance in animals exposed to predictable and unpredictable variation in multiple environmental factors

对于大多数物种，我们不能肯定地说，极端事件带来的温度变化是否会影响它们的表现。使用一个有效的实验设计，PI丹尼和多德将利用独特的生活史的潮汐池桡足类Tigriopus californicus量化现实，同时变化的多个压力（温度，盐度，氧气和二氧化碳的浓度）与动物的生理相互作用，影响其生存和繁殖的能力。由于虎足虫繁殖迅速，通常会遇到快速的环境变化，它可以作为一个模型生物的实验与多种压力。从这些测量中获得的见解将提高我们预测温度变化的生物和生态影响的能力。这项研究的其他影响将包括本科生的调查为基础的培训，包括夏季研究实习的历史上服务不足的群体;博士后指导计划，准备一个主要本科院校，涉及一套责任，机会和挑战的教师职位的各个方面最近的博士毕业生不同于那些在研究型大学的位置;以及开发一个便携式实验模块，旨在通过测量Tigriopus生命周期的各个方面，向服务不足的K-12学生介绍生态生理学。生物执行生存和繁殖所需任务的能力决定了物种的成功或失败，但环境对性能的影响可能是复杂的。生物学家通常通过测量单个变量的一系列恒定水平中的每一个的个体表现来解释生物体与环境的相互作用，从而构建性能曲线。例如，通过考虑非线性平均（詹森不等式）的影响，在静态条件下构建的热性能曲线已被用于预测温度平均值和方差变化的生物后果。然而，这种数学方法忽略了几个重要因素：（1）补偿生理机制可能会修改严格的数学预测的性能。例如，短暂暴露在压力温度下可以为未来事件做好生理准备。(2)自然界中的环境变化往往是不可预测的，特别是在考虑罕见的极端事件时。然而，这种不可预测性很少被认为是经验。(3)对一个环境因素变化的反应可能取决于其他压力源的变化模式。这些相互作用的结果可以是协同的或拮抗的，这取决于潜在的生理学。此外，变化可能对瞬时与寿命综合性能指标产生不同的影响。通过使用一种新的模式物种和一种新颖、高效的实验设计，该项目明确地解决了这些因素，以开发一种更稳健、与环境相关的方法，来量化可变、不可预测和不断变化的世界中的性能。

For most species, we cannot say with certainty if variable temperatures that come with extreme events influence their performance. Using an efficient experimental design, PIs Denny and Dowd will take advantage of the unique life history of the tide-pool copepod Tigriopus californicus to quantify how realistic, simultaneous variation in multiple stressors (temperature, salinity, and the concentrations of oxygen and carbon dioxide) interacts with the animal's physiology to affect its ability to survive and reproduce. Because Tigriopus reproduces rapidly and commonly encounters rapid environmental shifts, it can serve as a model organism for experiments with multiple stressors. Insights from these measurements will enhance our ability to predict the biological and ecological effects of variation in temperature. Other impacts of this research will include the inquiry-based training of undergraduate students, including summer research internships for historically underserved groups; a Postdoctoral Mentoring Plan to prepare a recent doctoral graduate for all aspects of a faculty position at a primarily undergraduate institution, a position that involves a suite of responsibilities, opportunities, and challenges different from those at research-oriented universities; and the development of a portable experimental module designed to introduce underserved K-12 students to ecological physiology by measuring aspects of Tigriopus's life cycle. Organisms' abilities to perform the tasks necessary to survive and reproduce dictate species' success or failure, but environmental effects on performance are potentially complex. Biologists often account for organism-environment interactions by measuring individual performance at each of a series of constant levels of a single variable, thereby constructing a performance curve. For example, by taking into account the effects of nonlinear averaging (Jensen's inequality), thermal performance curves constructed under static conditions have been used to forecast biological consequences of changes in temperature mean and variance. However, this mathematical approach overlooks several important factors: (1) Compensatory physiological mechanisms may modify the strictly mathematical predictions of performance. For example, brief exposure to stressful temperatures can prime physiology for future events. (2) Environmental variation in nature is often unpredictable, particularly when rare, extreme events are considered. However, this unpredictability only rarely has been considered empirically. (3) The response to variation in one environmental factor may depend on patterns of variation of other stressors. The results of these interactions could be synergistic or antagonistic depending on the underlying physiology. Furthermore, variation can have disparate effects on instantaneous vs. lifetime-integrative performance metrics. By using a new model species and a novel, efficient experimental design, this project explicitly addresses these factors to develop a more robust, environmentally relevant approach to quantifying performance in a variable, unpredictable, and changing world.