Adaptations of solitary wasp populations in a dynamic environment

在动态环境中，资源的可用性经常波动，栖息地可能在短时间内变得支离破碎，这对栖息在其中的生物体提出了极端挑战。在这些环境中，生物种群的地理结构可能是这样的，以至于小的地方种群的灭绝对整个全球种群来说并不是灾难性的。其中一种结构是由莱文斯的集合种群概念定义的，在该概念中，局部的排斥和排斥是平衡的，以防止整体灭绝。膜翅目昆虫目包括蜜蜂、黄蜂和蚂蚁，被认为是地球上物种最多的昆虫，占据各种环境条件，并表现出无数的生活史策略。孤独的黄蜂是必不可少的生态系统的功能，通过过程，包括捕食，授粉和种子传播，但仍然在很大程度上研究不足。位于英国诺福克海岸的布莱克尼角，为在动态的沿海环境中研究独居黄蜂提供了理想的地点。该项目将探讨这些物种在具有挑战性的条件下是否生活在集合种群结构中，并确定对景观的行为和基因组适应，这对我们了解居住在破碎景观中的其他生物具有重要意义，并为研究不足的类群提供急需的知识。

Dynamic environments in which the availability of resources fluctuate frequently and habitat can become fragmented over short timescales provide extreme challenges for the organisms inhabiting them. In these environments, populations of organisms may be geographically structured in ways such that the extinction of small, local populations is not catastrophic for the global population as a whole. One such structure is defined by Levins' metapopulation concept, in which local extinctions and recolonisations are balanced to prevent overall extinction. Hymenoptera, the insect order comprising bees, wasps, and ants, is thought to be the most speciose on the planet, occupying a variety of environmental conditions and exhibiting myriad life history strategies. Solitary wasps are essential for the functioning of ecosystems through processes including predation, pollination, and seed dispersal, yet remain largely understudied. Blakeney Point, on the coast of Norfolk in the UK, provides an ideal location for the study of solitary wasps in a dynamic coastal environment. This project will explore whether such species in challenging conditions live in a metapopulation structure, and identify behavioural and genomic adaptations to the landscape, with important implications for our understanding of other organisms inhabiting fragmented landscapes and providing much-needed knowledge on understudied taxa.