RUI: Social Information Use and Communication in Aquatic Embryos

在巢中产卵的动物可能会在胚胎发育期间获得有关孵化后可能经历的环境的信息。这种在卵期学习的能力被认为是有益的，因为它使个体准备好应对资源和风险，并可以提高生存率。虽然我们知道许多水生生物，包括鱼类和两栖动物，可以在卵期学习，但我们并不完全了解它们是如何学习的。先前的研究表明，水生胚胎可以检测和学习周围水中的视觉和化学线索，并直接从这些线索中学习。然而，关于巢中邻居的存在如何有助于蛋阶段的学习，人们知之甚少。考虑到巢中蛋彼此接近，胚胎也有可能通过关注其他胚胎的行为来获得有关环境的信息（即，通过社会机制学习）。该项目将使用一种常见的淡水鱼类，黑头呆鱼，来研究胚胎是否以及如何在卵期从巢中的其他个体那里了解当地丰富的捕食者，并了解这些信息是如何在卵个体之间传递的。这些数据将为关键的早期生命阶段的行为和沟通的发展提供新的见解。PI还将与科学教育教师和跨学科的本科生团队合作，为K-12学生开发和提供教育材料（通过一个初级科学家教育计划），并进行推广到当地社区，重点是进化生物学，生物多样性，胚胎阶段是发育的关键时期，胚胎对环境的线索高度敏感in a variety品种of modalities模态.在卵期，个体可以直接（通过非社会学习机制）或通过观察同类的行为（社会学习机制）或通过两者的结合来获得有关环境的信息。虽然以前的研究表明，各种卵生水生类群的胚胎是敏感的环境线索，增加孵化后的健身，我们知道很少的胚胎社会信息的使用和学习在较低的水生脊椎动物。此外，很少有研究明确测试的假设，在孵化前的水生胚胎学习，因此许多问题仍然存在的发展和机制的学习在这个关键阶段的个体发育。该项目将测试多个，非相互排斥的社会学习和信息传递的假设，以确定学习行为是什么时候第一次在一个共同的，卵生淡水鱼类，黑头呆鱼，以及胚胎如何和从谁学习？这些结果也将为了解胚胎如何感知和传递同种感觉信息提供帮助。除了推进我们对行为、学习、社会认知、交流和感官生态学的进化和发展的理解外，这些数据还可能促进行为生态学其他领域的新见解，包括捕食者-猎物相互作用和配偶选择。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Animals laid as eggs in nests may obtain information during embryonic development about the environment that they are likely to experience after hatching. This ability to learn during the egg stage is thought to be beneficial because it prepares individuals to respond to resources and risks and can improve survival. Although we know that many aquatic organisms, including fish and amphibians, can learn during the egg stage, we do not fully understand how they learn. Previous research has shown that aquatic embryos can detect and learn from visual and chemical cues in the water around them and directly learn from those cues. However, little is known about how the presence of neighbors in the nest contributes to learning during the egg stage. Given the proximity of eggs to one another in a nest, embryos also have the potential to gain information about the environment by paying attention to the behavior of other embryos (i.e., learning through social mechanisms). This project will use a common, freshwater fish species, the fathead minnow, to investigate whether and how embryos learn about locally abundant predators during the egg stage from other individuals in the nest, and to understand how this information is transferred among egg-bound individuals. These data will provide new insight into the development of behavior and communication at a critical early life stage. The PI will also collaborate with science education faculty and an interdisciplinary team of undergraduates to develop and deliver education materials for K-12 students (via a Junior Scientist education program) and conduct outreach to the local community with a focus on evolutionary biology, biodiversity, and the process of scientific inquiry.The embryonic stage is a critical window of development and embryos are highly sensitive to environmental cues in a variety of modalities. During the egg stage, individuals may obtain information about the environment directly (via asocial learning mechanisms) or by observing the behavior of conspecifics (social learning mechanisms), or via a combination of the two. Although previous research has shown that embryos of various oviparous aquatic taxa are sensitive to environmental cues that increase fitness after hatching, we know very little about embryonic social information use and learning in lower aquatic vertebrates. In addition, few studies have explicitly tested hypotheses related to learning in aquatic embryos prior to hatching, and thus numerous questions remain about the development and mechanisms of learning at this key stage of ontogeny. This project will test multiple, non-mutually exclusive hypotheses of social learning and information transfer to determine when learned behaviors are first expressed in a common, oviparous freshwater fish species, Pimephales promelas, and how and from whom do embryos learn? The results will also provide insight into how embryos perceive and transmit conspecific sensory information. In addition to advancing our understanding of the evolution and development of behavior, learning, social cognition, communication and sensory ecology, these data may also promote new insight in other areas of behavioral ecology, including predator-prey interactions and mate choice.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.