NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Impacts of social breeding on the evolution of cognition

这是NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，根据扩大生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与计划。这位名叫Angela Medina-García的研究员正在进行研究和接受培训，以增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。这位研究员正在科罗拉多大学博尔德分校接受丽贝卡·萨弗兰的指导。该项目旨在了解社会繁殖如何影响野生动物获取和使用社会信息能力的进化。这位研究员将通过评估不同群体大小的鸟类（家燕）如何获得和使用社会信息，以及这些能力如何帮助它们繁殖，来填补科学知识的这一空白。动物需要不断地获取和处理环境信息来生存和繁殖。许多动物生活在密集的群体中，这就要求它们注意其他动物的行为，并利用这些环境信息（即社会信息）来提高它们成功抚养后代的能力。该研究员还为来自代表性不足的少数民族的本科生提供宝贵的研究培训。此外，来自代表性不足群体的小学和高中学生在学习基础鸟类生物学的同时，也在观察燕子群。这位研究员还在科罗拉多大学自然历史博物馆开发展览，这是一个关于鸟类认知的双语网站（'aviancognition'），以及一个用于报告家燕群体的交互式在线程序（"燕子追踪器"），这涉及所有级别的学生，并有助于提高公众对鸟类和生物领域研究的赞赏。（Hirundo rustica）繁殖要么单独对或在殖民地与多个繁殖对。因此，这个物种是一个理想的系统，使生态和遗传控制的比较认知性状之间的个体的同一人口具有不同程度的社会性。将沿着一个社会连续体测试社会繁殖对认知特征进化的影响，其目标如下：1）测量认知特征和繁殖成功的个体差异; 2）测试出生和环境对认知特征的影响。自然发生的反捕食者行为将被用来测量揭示社会信息选择性获取的认知特征。认知性状的适应价值将通过测量繁殖成功率来评估。出生和社会环境对认知特征的影响将通过在不同规模的社会繁殖群体之间进行部分交叉培养实验来研究。将采用定量遗传模型来估计由于出生和饲养环境的方差分量。

This is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology, under the program Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellow, Angela Medina-García, is conducting research and receiving training that is increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The fellow is being mentored by Rebecca Safran at the University of Colorado-Boulder. This project seeks to understand how social breeding impacts the evolution of wild animals' ability to acquire and use social information. The fellow will fill this gap in scientific knowledge by evaluating how birds (barn swallows) of different colony sizes acquire and use social information, and how these abilities help them reproduce. Animals need to constantly obtain and process environmental information to survive and reproduce. Many animals live in dense colonies, which requires them to pay attention to the actions of others and use this environmental information (i.e. social information) to increase their ability to successfully raise their young. The fellow is also providing invaluable research training to undergraduate students from underrepresented minorities. In addition, elementary and high school students from underrepresented groups are being engaged by observing swallow colonies while learning basic bird biology. The fellow is also developing exhibits at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, a bilingual website on avian cognition ('aviancognition'), and an interactive online program for reporting barn swallow colonies ('Swallow Tracker'), which involve students of all levels and help increase appreciation for birds and biological field research among the general public.Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) breed either in solitary pairs or in colonies with multiple breeding pairs. Therefore, this species is an ideal system to make ecologically and phylogenetically controlled comparisons of cognitive traits among individuals of the same population with a varying degree of sociality. The impacts of social breeding on the evolution of cognitive traits will be tested along a sociality continuum, with the following objectives: 1) Measure individual variation in cognitive traits and reproductive success; 2) Test natal and environmental influences on cognitive traits. Naturally occurring anti-predator behaviors will be used to measure cognitive traits that reveal selective acquisition of social information. The adaptive value of cognitive traits will be evaluated by measuring reproductive success. The influences of natal and social environments on cognitive traits will be examined by conducting a partial cross-fostering experiment between social breeding groups of different sizes. Quantitative genetic models will be employed to estimate variance components due to both natal and rearing environments.