Ecological Drivers and Conservation Implications of Parental Care Diversity in Vertebrates

在是否照顾后代、如何照顾后代以及照顾多长时间方面，动物之间存在惊人的差异。在大多数物种中，比如许多海洋鱼类，父母会把受精卵留给自己的命运，而这些卵大多被捕食者吃掉。相反，在其他物种中，父母为他们的后代提供保护和资源。虽然父母的照顾提高了后代的存活率，但由于资源和时间有限，父母也付出了相当大的代价。一旦进化，关爱不仅会影响父母和后代的健康，还会改变生活史策略，与性选择和交配系统有关，导致家庭内部的合作和冲突，并促进社会性的演变。然而，我们对护理何时演变及其对物种繁衍、种群动态和灭绝风险的连锁反应知之甚少。该项目结合了最先进的系统发育比较方法、数百种脊椎动物的父母照料行为数据集和尖端进化模型，以：(1)调查哪些生态条件促进了照料多样性的演变；(2)揭示父母照料是生殖特征变化的驱动因素还是后果；(3)评价照料多样性如何影响种群趋势和灭绝风险。

There are astonishing differences in whether, how, and how long for, animals care for their offspring. In most species, such as many marine fishes, parents abandon their fertilized eggs to their own destiny, which is mostly being eaten by predators. Conversely, in other species parents provide protection and resources to their offspring. While parental care increases offspring survival, it also comes at considerable costs for the parents because resources and time are limited. Once evolved, not only does care affect the fitness of parents and offspring, but it also alters life history strategies, is related to sexual selection and mating system, leads to cooperation and conflict within the family, and promotes the evolution of sociality. Yet, we know very little about when care evolves and its knock-on effects on species reproduction, population dynamics and extinction risk. This project combines state-of-the-art phylogenetic comparative approaches, datasets of parental care behaviours for hundreds of vertebrate species, and cutting-edge evolutionary modelling, to: (i) Investigate which ecological conditions promote the evolution of care diversity;(ii) Unravel whether parental care is the driver or the consequences of changes in reproductive characteristics;(iii) Evaluate how care diversity influences population trends and extinction risk.