Life history adaptations of larvacean tunicates to environmental variability

我的长期目标是确定冷海浮游动物对环境条件的整体适应能力。这一点很重要，因为适应决定了关键的生活史特征，如年龄和成熟时的大小、繁殖力(即产蛋率)和死亡率，这些共同决定了季节和年际周期的补充和丰度。生活史特征受到巨大的选择压力和快速进化变化的影响。我的指导性概念模型是进化论中经典的生活史优化模型，在该模型中，关键性状受到生理权衡的影响，其中许多与体型有关。例如，生活史理论预测，体型越大，生育能力就越强，从而终生健康状况也就越好。然而，如果增加体型需要更长的发育时间，从而增加被吃掉的可能性，那么增加繁殖力可能会通过权衡来阻止。

My long term goal is to determine whole-organism adaptations of cold ocean zooplankton to environmental conditions. This is important because adaptations determine key life history traits, such as age and size-at-maturity, fecundity (i.e. egg production rate), and mortality, which together determine seasonal and interannual cycles of recruitment and abundance. Life history traits are subject to intense selection pressure and rapid evolutionary change. My guiding conceptual model is the classical life history optimization model from evolutionary theory, in which key traits are subject to physiological trade-offs, many related to body size. For example, life history theory predicts that increased body size results in increased fecundity and thus increased lifetime fitness. However, increased fecundity may be prevented by trade-offs if increased body size requires increased development time resulting in increased probability of being eaten.