CREST-PRF: Linking physiology and demography in the Eastern Mosquitofish Gambusia holbrooki

卓越研究中心在科学和技术博士后研究奖学金（CREST-PRF）的CREST计划内的轨道支持开始CREST中心研究人员具有显着的潜力，并为他们提供培训和研究经验，将拓宽视野，促进跨学科的互动，并建立他们在科学界的领导地位。该CREST-PRF项目与佛罗里达国际大学CREST水生化学与环境中心（CAChE）的研究重点一致。该项目将重点关注汞（Hg）如何影响生物体的生理、生命率和当地人口增长。 大沼泽地是一个相互关联的淡水生态系统网络，包括受汞及其甲基化或有机形式甲基汞污染的局部地区，将为这项研究提供天然实验室。东部食蚊鱼，食蚊鱼holbrooki，将被用来作为一个模式物种，以记录人口和人口的生理压力的影响，由水污染物（汞）。由于东部食蚊鱼在大沼泽地食物网中发挥着关键作用，该项目将促进我们对人类引起的污染物如何影响水生生物群的认识和理解。本研究的结果将有助于设计保护和修复活动。这项研究将有助于拉丁美洲学生的博士后培训，从而增加在STEM领域寻求职业生涯的代表性不足的少数民族候选人的数量，这是CREST-CAChE的一个重要目标。此外，该研究项目将被纳入该中心的教育和推广计划。该研究的总体目标是确定生物体对环境压力的生理反应是否会调节个人和群体的表现。虽然其他研究已经研究了水生生物应激的人口后果，但考虑多种生活史特征（例如生长，生存和繁殖）的研究很少。此外，研究当地人口动态如何受到生理压力造成的资源分配模式变化的影响是必要的。本研究还将通过测量生物体的生理条件与人口和种群表现之间的关系，检验作为了解物种适应环境条件的基础的生活史权衡假设。该项目将通过测量，在现场和控制实验室实验，G。holbrooki对汞引起的生理应激的反应。人口统计学数据（生长、存活和生殖输出）将用于开发基于阶段的种群矩阵模型，以估计不同生理压力下的种群增长率。通过将经验性生理数据与人口模型相结合，这项研究将是第一个直接测试这种关系的研究。本研究的结果将提供定量证据的成功（或失败）的使用生理测量作为生物标志物，以确定水污染物的影响，在水生生物的人口和生活史特征。

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology-Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (CREST-PRF) track within the CREST program supports beginning CREST Center investigators with significant potential and provides them with training and research experiences that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and establish them in positions of leadership within the scientific community. This CREST-PRF project is aligned with the research focus of the CREST Center for Aquatic Chemistry and the Environment (CAChE) at Florida International University. The project will focus on how mercury (Hg) affects organisms' physiology, vital rates, and local population growth. The Everglades, a network of interconnected freshwater ecosystems that includes local areas contaminated by (Hg) and its methylated or organic form, methylmercury, will provide a natural laboratory for this study. The eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki, will be used as a model species to document the demographic and population consequences of physiological stress induced by water contaminants (Hg). Since the eastern mosquitofish play a critical role in the Everglades food webs, this project will advance our knowledge and understanding of how human-induced contaminants affect aquatic biota. Findings from this study will be useful for designing conservation and restoration activities. The research will contribute to the postdoctoral training of a Latin American student, thus increasing the number of underrepresented minority candidates pursuing a career in STEM, an important goal of the CREST-CAChE. In addition, this research project will be integrated into the education and outreach program at the Center.The overarching goal of the research is to determine whether the organism's physiological response to environmental stress regulates individual and population performance. Although other studies have examined the demographic consequences of stress in aquatic organisms, studies considering multiple life-history traits (e.g. growth, survival, and reproduction) are scarce. Furthermore, research examining how local population dynamics are affected by variation in patterns of resource allocation due to physiological stress, are warranted. This study will also test the life-history trade-off hypothesis as the basis to understand species' adaptation to environmental conditions by measuring the relationship between organisms' physiological conditions and demographic and population performance. This project will address such gaps by measuring, both in the field and in controlled lab experiments, the demographic response of G. holbrooki to mercury-induced physiological stress. The demographic data (growth, survival, and reproductive output) will be used to develop stage-based population matrix models to estimate population growth rates under different physiological pressures. By combining empirical physiological data with demographic modeling, the proposed study will be among the first to test such a relationship directly. The outcomes of this study will provide quantitative evidence of the success (or failure) of using physiological measurements as a biomarker to determine the effects of water contaminants in the demography and life-history traits of aquatic organisms.