CAREER: Measuring real-time energy and fitness costs of metabolic and behavioral strategies employed by songbirds during inclement weather

恶劣的天气对动物来说很难生存，尤其是在不可预测或极端的天气下。在暴风雨期间，动物可能会寻找避难所以节省能量和提高生存能力，但如果它们还试图抚养后代，这可能会很困难或对它们的繁殖成功产生负面影响。不同个体所做的决定可以决定它们和它们的后代是否能存活下来养育下一代，这反过来又决定了一个物种是否能在一个特定的地方生存下去。在世界上的一些地区，风暴的频率和强度都在增加，同时，风暴发生的时间也变得越来越难以预测。这对许多动物来说可能是特别具有挑战性的，然而，很少有研究试图描述动物在风暴中如何做出决定，什么样的代谢特征可能帮助它们更好地在风暴中生存，以及成为父母可能如何改变这些决定。有了这笔资金，俄勒冈州立大学的研究人员将描述鸣禽在野外风暴中的行为，以及这些行为如何影响它们的健康和养育后代的能力。他们还将在实验室中仔细控制天气的不同方面，如温度、降水和风，以确定这些不同因素如何影响保持温暖的能源成本。总之，这项工作将使我们更好地理解为什么物种范围可能随着全球气候变化而缩小或扩大，并将指导更有效的管理和保护目标。拟议的教育和推广计划旨在提高美国原住民和其他未被充分代表的群体在生物科学领域的代表性，并在自然历史和科学的背景下连接不同年龄群体的社区。由于气候变化加剧了风暴的频率和严重程度，恶劣的天气可能会定义物种的分布边缘，并可能越来越多地影响生存。种群内个体存活率存在很大差异，人们对这种差异生存背后的行为或生理机制了解甚少。尽管大量的工作描述了实验室恒温动物代谢能力的季节性灵活性，以及恶劣天气对野外死亡率和生殖适应性的影响，但很少有人试图将这些工作联系起来，并将代谢能力与恶劣天气下的适应性指标联系起来。这项拟议的研究考察了在不同的季节背景下，变化的天气对小体型鸣禽红叉鸟（Loxia curvirostra）的新陈代谢和行为的影响。本研究利用杂交鸟对针叶树种子的专门化和机会主义繁殖行为来进行研究。量化恶劣天气的持续时间、类型和严重程度如何影响鸣禽对急性天气的行为反应和代谢成本；2. 确定在恶劣天气条件下，生殖投资和觅食行为如何改变生理和行为应对机制；和3。量化代谢特征在恶劣天气内外如何影响行为策略、表现和健康指标。这些研究目标将在野外和受控圈养环境中结合使用生物遥测、呼吸测量和血液生理学来实现。拟议的实验整合了生态生理学、行为学和自然史，以促进我们对为什么有些个体在面对环境逆境时比其他人更有弹性的理解。该项目将利用奖学金和印第安人指导专家的指导，在招募印第安人学生参加该项目之前制定一项土著指导计划（IMP）。impps侧重于增加指导积极成果的关键因素，包括：社区建设、关系建设和纳入土著观点和科学方法。该奖项由综合有机体系统动物行为项目共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Harsh weather can be difficult for animals to survive, especially when it is unpredictable or extreme. During storms animals may seek shelter to save energy and improve survival, but this may be difficult or have negative consequences on their reproductive success if they are also trying to raise young. The decisions that different individuals make can determine if they and their young survive to raise the next generation and this will in turn determine if a species can persist in a particular location. Storms have been increasing in frequency and intensity in some areas of the world and simultaneously becoming less predictable in when they occur. This may be particularly challenging to many animals and, yet, very few studies have attempted to describe how animals make decisions during storms, what types of metabolic traits might help them to better survive during storms and how being a parent might change those decisions. With this grant, researchers at Oregon State University will describe how songbirds behave during storms in the wild and how those behaviors affect their health and their ability to raise young. They will also carefully control different aspects of weather, such as temperature, precipitation and wind, in the lab to determine how these different factors impact the energy costs of staying warm. Together this work will allow for a better understanding of why species ranges may be contracting or expanding as the global climate changes and will guide more efficient management and conservation goals. The proposed educational and outreach plan seeks to advance representation of Native Americans and other underrepresented groups in the biological sciences and to connect communities across multiple agegroups in the context of natural history and science. Inclement weather may define species distributional edges and may increasingly impact survival as climate change exacerbates the frequency and severity of storms. There is wide variation in individual survival within populations with little understanding of the behavioral or physiological mechanisms underlying this differential survival. Despite extensive work describing seasonal flexibility in the metabolic capacity of endotherms in the lab and the impact of inclement weather on mortality and reproductive fitness in the field, few have attempted to connect these bodies of work and relate metabolic capacity to metrics of fitness during inclement weather. The proposed research examines the impact of variable weather on metabolism and behavior in a small-bodied songbird, the red crossbill (Loxia curvirostra), within different seasonal contexts. This research leverages the crossbill’s specialization on conifer seeds and opportunistic breeding behavior to 1. Quantify how the duration, type and severity of inclement weather influences songbird behavioral responses to and metabolic costs of acute weather; 2. Determine how reproductive investment and foraging performance change physiological and behavioral coping mechanisms employed during inclement weather; and 3. Quantify how metabolic traits impact behavioral strategies, performance and fitness metrics during and outside of inclement weather. These research goals will be achieved using a combination of biotelemetry, respirometry and blood physiology in both field and controlled-captive environments. The proposed experiments integrate ecophysiology, behavior and natural history to advance our understanding of why some individuals are more resilient than others in the face of environmental adversity. The PI will utilize the scholarship and guidance of experts on Native Americans mentorship to develop an Indigenous Mentoring Plan (IMP) prior to recruit Native Americans students to the project. IMPs focus on key factors that increase positive outcomes of mentorship, including: community building, relationship building and incorporation of indigenous viewpoints and approaches to science.This award was co-funded by the Animal Behavior program in Integrative Organismal Systems.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.