Demography, movement dynamics and population structure of bats

了解种群生物学对于管理、监测和保护生物多样性至关重要。尽管如此，生物学家在准确描述许多种群的分布和其他动态（例如，大小等）方面遇到了巨大的困难。理解种群生物学的关键是对进化过程的定量理解，如形成种群结构的扩散和基因流动。我的研究计划的目标是描述种群结构，并调查导致这种结构的潜在进化过程，这种结构经常被误解，但重要的是，哺乳动物群体——蝙蝠。北方长耳蝠和小棕蝠是广泛分布于北美的物种。在夏季，这两个物种的雌性都栖息在母巢中，而雄性通常单独栖息。到了秋天，它们会搬到洞穴和矿井里交配，冬眠过冬。这种一般的生活史是许多温带蝙蝠的典型特征，因此这个项目将提供对许多其他物种生物学的深入了解。我将使用现场（包括诱捕，标记和重新定位）和分子技术来表征种群结构。最后，根据经验证据，我将能够明确地定义蝙蝠种群的空间和时间方面。

Understanding population biology is crucial for managing, monitoring and conserving biodiversity. Despite this, biologists have tremendous difficulties accurately characterizing distribution and other dynamics (e.g., size, etc.) of many populations. Key to understanding population biology is a quantitative understanding of evolutionary processes such as dispersal and gene flow which shape population structure. The objective of my research program will be to characterize population structure and investigate the underlying evolutionary processes that lead to this structure in an often misunderstood, but important, group of mammals- the bats. The northern long-eared and little brown bats are widely-distributed North American species. In the summer, females of both species roost in maternity colonies and males typically roost alone. In the fall they move to caves and mines where they copulate and hibernate over-winter. This general life history is typical of many temperate zone bats and therefore this program will provide insight into the biology of many other species. I will use field (including trapping, tagging and re-locating) and molecular techniques to characterize population structure. At the end, I will be able to explicitly define, based on empirical evidence, the spatial and temporal aspects of bat populations.