NSF-IOS-BSF: When physiology meets landscape ecology: Effects of landscape fragmentation on physiological tradeoffs

农业活动可能导致自然生境的碎片化，这可能导致整个生境面积的损失，减少平均生境斑块大小，并增加斑块之间的距离。所有这些都可能导致生活在这些支离破碎的栖息地的当地种群的衰落和灭绝。生物体一般有有限的资源(营养能量)来投资于生长、维持、扩散和繁殖。将资源分配给这些职能中的任何一个都会减少其他职能可用的资源数量。这项研究将检验这样一种假设，即分配给扩散的资源量与分配给繁殖的资源量之间的权衡，作为生物体将零散生境中经历的环境变异性转化为那些生境中的种群持久性的生理机制联系。这项研究将使用一只快速移动的地面甲虫来验证这一假设，该甲虫生活在以色列南部朱迪亚低地的零散栖息地。通过昆虫发现推广计划，亚利桑那州图森市约10,000名二年级学生将在特别设计的研讨会和课堂访问中使用昆虫学习生物学原理。此外，66名本科生导师和12名研究生将接受有关科学推广以及如何向公众传达对科学的热情的培训。生境碎片化是景观的主要特征，特别是在集约化耕作导致自然生境碎片化加剧的情况下。提出了一个新的、综合的概念框架，其中由碎片化强加的环境的空间特征导致了特定的生活史特征，从而增加了个体的生存并降低了种群灭绝的可能性。随着生境破碎化的加剧，生物应该更多地投资于扩散，而不是更少地投资于繁殖，从而导致资源分配在繁殖和沿生境碎片化梯度的扩散之间进行权衡。由此产生了三个明确且可检验的假说，它们预测，扩散-繁殖权衡是生物体将栖息地碎片化造成的环境变化转化为物种丰度变化的机械性联系，从而降低局部灭绝概率并增加种群持久性。这些假设将在以色列南朱迪亚低地一个经过充分研究的支离破碎的地貌中得到验证，重点是一种快速移动的地面栖息的甲虫。这项研究综合了景观生态学和生态生理学在多个尺度上的技术，从个体、斑块、种群到整个景观。该项目将支持昆虫发现，这是一个外展项目，利用昆虫向亚利桑那州图森市近10,000名二年级学生讲授生物学原理，他们中的大多数是经济困难、服务不足的少数民族。此外，66名本科生导师和12名研究生将接受有关科学推广以及如何向公众传达对科学的热情的培训。

Agricultural activity can result in the fragmentation of natural habitats, which can lead to loss of total habitat area, reduced average habitat patch size, and increased distances among patches. All these may lead to the decline and extinction of local populations that live in these fragmented habitats. Organisms in general have finite amounts of resources (nutritional energy) to invest in growth, maintenance, dispersal and reproduction. Allocation of resources to any one of these functions reduces the amount available to the others. This study will test the hypothesis that a tradeoff in the amount of resources allocated to dispersal versus resources allocated to reproduction serves as the physiological mechanistic link by which organisms translate environmental variability experienced in fragmented habitats into population persistence within those habitats. This study will test this hypothesis using a fast-moving ground-dwelling beetle in the fragmented habitat of the Southern Judean Lowlands in Israel. Through the outreach program Insect Discovery, about 10,000 2nd grade students in Tucson, AZ will use insects to learn biological principles in specially designed workshops and classroom visits. In addition, 66 undergraduate preceptors and 12 graduate students will be trained in science outreach and how to convey an enthusiasm for science to the general public. Habitat fragmentation is a dominant feature of landscapes particularly where intensive cultivation results in increased fragmentation of natural habitats. A novel, integrative conceptual framework is proposed in which spatial characteristics of the environment, imposed by fragmentation, lead to specific life-history traits that increase individual survival and decrease the likelihood of population extinction. As habitat fragmentation increases, organisms should invest more into dispersal and less into reproduction, resulting in a resource allocation tradeoff between reproduction and dispersal along a habitat fragmentation gradient. Emerging from this are three explicit and testable hypotheses that predict that the dispersal-reproduction tradeoff is the mechanistic link by which organisms translate environmental variation created by habitat fragmentation into variation in species abundances that lower local extinction probability and increase population persistence. These hypotheses will be tested in a well-studied fragmented landscape in the Southern Judea Lowlands of Israel, focusing on a fast-moving, ground-dwelling beetle. This study brings together techniques from landscape ecology and ecological physiology across multiple scales, from the individual, to patches, to populations, to whole landscapes. This project will support Insect Discovery, an outreach program that uses insects to teach biological principles to nearly 10,000 2nd grade students in Tucson, AZ, most of whom are economically disadvantaged, underserved minorities. In addition, 66 undergraduate preceptors and 12 graduate students will be trained in science outreach and how to convey an enthusiasm for science to the general public.