The impact of environmental variability on evolutionary processes in wild animal populations impact de la variabilité environnementale sur l'evolution des populations animales

环境变化对产生和维持生物多样性的进化过程的影响几乎没有受到关注，尽管灭绝风险将与物种的进化潜力或表型可塑性联系在一起。在以前的研究中，假设环境是恒定的，限制了我们对自然种群进化及其适应环境变化能力的理解。因此，迫切需要量化野生动物种群的选择、数量遗传学参数和表型可塑性，同时考虑到一系列现实的环境条件。这一分析还将更好地评估适应的空间规模。我的研究计划的目标是确定环境变化对野生动物种群进化过程的影响。我将结合景观和分子生态学技术，强大的数量遗传学方法，如动物模型，以及对野生鸟类种群中有标记的个体的长期监测，以建立系谱并量化空间和时间尺度上的环境变化。我的计划将集中于1)确定环境变异性如何影响遗传变异量和性状遗传力；2)评估多变量选择模式在广泛环境条件下的强度和变异性；3)量化不同环境下表型可塑性的变异水平、选择作用和遗传力。我的研究将基于树燕(Tachycineta Biolor)，这是一种很容易在巢穴箱中繁殖的物种，可以被唯一地标记，从而能够在种群和个体水平上进行精确的长期监测。我的项目有极大的成功机会。400多个巢箱已经被放置在不同的栖息地，并已被监测了两年。经验方法和基于实验室的方法的结合使我的项目成为极少数拥有评估野外进化变化所需的数据和技术专业知识的项目之一。从而为研究生的培养提供了理想的环境。

Environmental change impacts on the evolutionary processes that produce and maintain biodiversity have received little attention despite the fact that extinction risk will be linked to a species' evolutionary potential or phenotypic plasticity. The assumption of a constant environment in previous studies limits our understanding of the evolution of natural populations and of their ability to adapt to environmental changes. There is thus a vital need to quantify selection, quantitative genetics parameters and phenotypic plasticity in wild animal populations taking into account a realistic range of environmental conditions. That analysis will also provide a better assessment of the spatial scale of adaptation. The goal of my research program is to determine the impact of environmental changes on evolutionary processes in wild animal populations. I will combine landscape and molecular ecology techniques, powerful quantitative genetics methods such as the "animal model" and long-term monitoring of marked individuals in a wild bird population to establish pedigrees and to quantify environmental variation at both the spatial and the temporal scale. My program will focus on 1) Establishing how environmental variability affects the amount of genetic variance and trait heritability; 2) Assessing both the strength and the variability of multivariate selection patterns under a wide range of environmental conditions; 3) Quantifying the level of variation in, the selection acting on, and the heritability of phenotypic plasticity under different environments. My research will be based on the Tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor), a species that readily breeds in nest boxes and can be uniquely marked, allowing precise long-term monitoring at both the population and individual levels. My program has an excellent chance of success. Over 400 nest boxes are already located in contrasting habitats and have been monitored for 2 years. The combination of empirical and laboratory-based approaches make my program one of very few with the data and the technical expertise required to assess evolutionary change in the wild. Consequently, it will provide an ideal environment for the training of graduate students.