Individual-based population and evolutionary ecology in theory and application

理解生态相互作用和性状变异如何影响适应度、种群动态和最终进化的复杂性是所有生物学中最具挑战性的问题之一。在这种追求中，进化生态学的方法与其他学科的区别在于它明确地关注个体变异的原因和后果。我在这方面的工作主要集中在大型食草动物的野生种群上（林地驯鹿、马鹿、野马）。在这里，我概述了我提出的主要针对我在新斯科舍省黑貂岛对野马进行的长期、基于个体的研究的研究。这个系统的非凡之处在于，它使我能够在一个野生但理想化的环境中，研究生物学模式生物的特征和生活史变异、个体生态学和进化遗传学。作为岛上唯一的陆生哺乳动物，马没有同业竞争对手或捕食者；它们也处于不受管理的状态（被加拿大公园指定为“归化野生动物”），因此，它们非常适合于基于个体的生态和进化研究。过去的一年是我的小组进行全种群抽样计划的第八年，每年夏天，我们几乎对每匹马（2015年N = 458；从照片中可识别出的概率约为1.0）收集数据和样本，以表征生活史、性状变异、遗传学和每匹马对环境的独特体验。在接下来的五年里，我将追求与我的职业目标一致的四个相互关联的研究轴（I - iv），即理解个体生态、性状变异、适应性和种群动态之间关系的基本原因和后果；并将这些知识转化为实际的保护政策建议。关于生活史和种群生态学以及保护生物学的轴I是低风险的，但随着基于个体的样本和生活史数据的积累，其高影响的潜力不断增加。轴II - iv由于其开拓性，呈现出相对较高的风险-回报概况，并利用最近的技术和方法突破，包括：(1)利用高通量DNA测序开发用于描述肠道寄生虫群落的元DNA条形码方法（轴II：肠道生物群和寄生虫个体变异的生态和进化原因和后果）；(2) 2015年马600K SNP阵列商业化（轴三：推进进化遗传学研究）；(3)积分投影模型在进化人口学中的应用（轴四：理解密度依赖对体型进化的影响）。我的项目旨在培养10名本科生，2名硕士，6名博士，外加2名pdf，在一个充满活力的实验室里，跨学科和国际合作蓬勃发展

Making sense of the complexity of how ecological interactions and trait variation affect fitness, population dynamics, and ultimately evolution is one of the most challenging problems in all of biology. In this pursuit the approach of evolutionary ecology is distinguished from other disciplines by its explicit focus on the causes and consequences of individual variation. Examples of my work in this context focus on wild populations of large herbivores (woodland caribou, red deer, feral horses). Here I outline proposed research principally directed at my long-term, individual-based study of feral horses on Sable Island, Nova Scotia. The system is remarkable in that it allows me to study trait and life history variation, individual ecology, and evolutionary genetics for a model organism of biology in a wild but yet idealized setting. As the island's only terrestrial mammal, the horses exist without guild competitors or predators; they are also maintained in an unmanaged state (designated as ‘naturalized wildlife' by Parks Canada) which, as a consequence, makes them highly amenable to individual-based ecological and evolutionary research. This past year was the eighth for my group's whole-population sampling program whereby each summer for almost every horse (N = 458 in 2015; identifiable from photographs with ~1.0 resighting probability) we collect data and samples to characterize life histories, trait variation, genetics, and each individual's unique experience of its environment. Over the next five years, I will be pursuing four interrelated research axes (I–IV) aligned with my career objectives of understanding fundamental causes and consequences of relationships between individual ecology, trait variation, fitness, and population dynamics; and translating this knowledge into practical policy recommendations for conservation. Axis I on life history and population ecology, and conservation biology, is low risk but with ever-increasing potential for high impact as individual-based samples and life history data accumulate. Axes II–IV present relatively higher risk-reward profiles given their pioneering nature, and capitalize on very recent technological and methodological breakthroughs including: (1) development of meta-DNA barcoding approaches for describing gut parasitic communities using high-throughput DNA sequencing (Axis II: ecological and evolutionary causes and consequences of individual variation in gut biota and parasites); (2) the 2015 commercialization of an equine 600K SNP array (Axis III: advancing research on evolutionary genetics); and (3) application of integral projection models to evolutionary demography (Axis IV: understanding effects of density dependence on evolution of body size). My program aims to train 10 undergraduate, 2 MSc, and 6 PhD students plus 2 PDFs in a dynamic lab that thrives on interdisciplinary and international collaboration.**