IntBIO: Collaborative Research: Feedback between physiological performance and social foraging in multi-species social network of wintering birds

虽然许多鸟类在冬季迁徙到温暖的气候，但有些物种能够在寒冷的冬季生存下来，尽管它们的身体很小，需要保持较高的体温。在冬季停留在温带的小型鸟类具有促进产热和保持体温的生理适应性，以及行为适应性，例如由单个或多个物种组成的群体中的社会觅食。在这些鸟群中，个体之间的社会关系网络--物种内部和物种之间--影响着日常的觅食模式。因此，这些生理和行为适应通过反馈回路联系在一起：社会觅食使鸟类能够收集足够的食物来产生热量，而热量消耗的能量会产生对更多食物的需求，从而影响社会觅食动态。该项目探讨了个体生理学与群体成员之间以及跨物种之间的生态和社会关系之间的联系，当他们聚集在一起寻找稀缺资源时。为了了解生理和行为之间的反馈如何影响越冬鸣禽群落中个体和物种之间的社会动态，我们将：（1）量化在可变环境温度下生理变化对社会网络稳定性的影响;（2）实验性地操纵社会伙伴之间的能量需求，以测试生理约束对社会关系的重要性;（3）实验性地操纵社会伙伴之间觅食活动的协调，以测试社会关系对生理表现的重要性。这些目标将通过表征社会觅食网络和测定生理性能的野生，标记的鸣禽种群使用阵列的馈线配备了射频识别接收器记录社会觅食回合。我们还将通过改变野外的热环境和资源可用性来梳理生理和社会行为之间的相互关系。这项工作将促进我们对个体表型变异和社区社会动态之间反馈的理解。该项目将侧重于在四个主要领域开展具有更广泛影响的活动：（1）通过两所大学的本科生，学士学位学生和研究生的研究经验，提高STEM的培训和包容性，（2）通过整合基于课程的本科生研究经验，提高本科STEM教育，（3）通过生产可扩展的，高产量的，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

While many birds migrate to warmer climates during the winter, some species are able to stay and survive cold winters despite their small bodies and need to maintain high body temperatures. Small birds that stay in temperate latitudes during the winter have physiological adaptations to promote heat production and maintain body temperature, as well as behavioral adaptations such as social foraging in flocks that can be composed of single or multiple species. In these flocks, the network of social relationships between individuals—within and between species—affect daily foraging patterns. Thus, these physiological and behavioral adaptations are linked through a feedback loop: social foraging allows birds to collect enough food to fuel heat production, and energy expended for heat creates demand for more food, which affects social foraging dynamics. This project explores these connections between the physiology of an individual and the ecological and social relationships that arise between group members and across species when they flock together in search of scarce resources. To understand how feedback between physiology and behavior influences the social dynamics between individuals and species in a community of wintering songbirds, we will: (1) quantify the effects of physiological variation on social network stability in the face of variable ambient temperatures; (2) experimentally manipulate energetic demand among social partners to test the importance of physiological constraints on social relationships; and, (3) experimentally manipulate coordination of foraging activities among social partners to test the importance of social relationships on physiological performance. These aims will be achieved by characterizing social foraging networks and assaying physiological performance in wild, marked populations of songbirds using arrays of feeders equipped with radio-frequency identification receivers to record social foraging bouts. We will additionally tease apart reciprocal relationships between physiology and social behavior by altering both the thermal environment and resource availability in the wild. Together this work will advance our understanding of the feedback between individual phenotypic variation and community social dynamics. This project will focus on broader impacts activities in four main areas: (1) Improving training and inclusivity in STEM through research experience for undergraduates, baccalaureate students, and graduate students across two universities, (2) Improving undergraduate STEM education through integration of course-based undergraduate research experiences, (3) Improving middle school STEM education through the production of scalable, high-production, interdisciplinary lesson plans for grades 6-9 that meet U.S. Next Generation Science Standards, and (4) Public engagement through field activities and presentations.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.