Evolutionary ecology and conservation biology of fishes

我的研究重点是自然种群内和自然种群之间生殖策略的巨大差异。 这种生活史的变化反映在个体差异的健身相关的字符，如年龄和大小在成熟时，每名女性的卵子数量，和后代的大小。 这种变异性的来源在多大程度上是遗传的、环境的，还是它们的某种组合？ 这是进化生态学和保护生物学的一个基本问题。 首先，这种变化的来源决定了生活史对环境扰动的反应，如栖息地的改变和收获，是快还是慢，或者它们是否会发生。 第二，生命史反应的性质可以影响种群从崩溃中恢复的能力，持续时间和维持开发的能力。 利用几种鱼类作为研究生物，我的总体目标是：1）确定如何在可变的环境中保持替代性生殖策略; 2）评估性别偏见的扩散和流动的适应意义; 3）研究影响种群在崩溃后恢复到历史上前所未有的丰富水平的能力的因素;（4）评价基因突变诱导的进化对表型可塑性的影响。 具体来说，我的第一项研究是询问大西洋鲑鱼种群中不同的雄性生殖策略是如何持续的。 第二，建立在一个20年的数据集，旨在了解为什么男性分散进一步，并有更大的流动性，比女性内的流人口溪鳟鱼。 第三项研究探讨了可能阻碍海洋鱼类恢复的与交配和繁殖有关的因素，例如大西洋鳕鱼自1992年以来在纽芬兰下降了99%。 使用斑马鱼，第四个项目研究是否大小差异死亡率可以产生选择反应，在几代人的生活史反应规范，可能导致个人能力降低，以应对环境变化。 这项研究对进化生态学和保护生物学的意义在于它有可能预测生活史对短期和长期环境变化的反应。

My research focuses on the tremendous variability in reproductive strategies within and among natural populations. Such life-history variation is reflected by individual differences in fitness-related characters, such as age & size at maturity, number of eggs per female, and offspring size. To what extent is the source of this variability genetic, environmental, or some combination thereof? This is a fundamental question to evolutionary ecology and conservation biology. Firstly, the source of this variation determines whether life-history responses to environmental perturbations, such as habitat alteration and harvesting, will be rapid, slow, or indeed whether they will occur at all. Secondly, the nature of the life-history response can affect a population's ability to recover from collapse, persist through time, and sustain exploitation. Using several species of fish as study organisms, my general objectives are: 1) to determine how alternative reproductive tactics are maintained in variable environments; 2) to assess the adaptive significance of sex-biased dispersal and mobility; 3) to study factors that affect the ability of populations to recover following collapse to historically unprecedented levels of abundance; and 4) to evaluate the influence of fisheries-induced evolution on phenotypic plasticity. Specifically, my first study asks how different male reproductive tactics persist within populations of Atlantic salmon. The second, building upon a 20-year data set, seeks to understand why males disperse further, and have greater mobility, than females within a stream population of brook trout. The third study explores factors related to mating and reproduction that may hinder the recovery of marine fish, such as the Atlantic cod which has declined 99% off Newfoundland since 1992. Using zebrafish, the fourth project examines whether size-differential mortality can generate a selection response in life-history reaction norms over several generations, potentially leading to a reduced individual capacity to respond to environmental change. The significance of the proposed research to evolutionary ecology and conservation biology lies in its potential to predict life-history responses to short- and long-term environmental change.