Life history adaptations of larvacean tunicates to environmental variability

我的长期目标是确定寒冷海洋浮游动物对环境条件的整体适应性。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（即产卵率）和死亡率，这些特征共同决定了季节性和年际的招募和丰度周期。生命史特征受制于强烈的选择压力和快速的进化变化。我的指导概念模型是来自进化论的经典生活史优化模型，其中关键特征受制于生理权衡，其中许多与体型有关。例如，生命史理论预测，体型的增加会导致繁殖力的增加，从而提高终身健康。然而，如果体型的增加需要更长的发育时间，从而增加被吃掉的可能性，那么繁殖能力的增加可能会被权衡所阻碍。

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.