Mating Preference Evolution: A Nutritional Ecology Approach

寻找配偶的代价可能很高，因为这会让雌性暴露在捕食者面前，并占用其他任务的时间。我的主要研究目标是理解为什么面对这些成本，配偶偏好会发生变化。大多数间接健康益处假说表明，交配偏好的演变是因为精致的特征反映了更大的后代存活率或繁殖成功(好基因)。项目1通过评估营养如何影响与表现特征变化相关的生理和认知基础，奠定了测试第二性征与条件相关的理论所需的基础。能量储存差异、肌肉代谢能力或代谢率导致的生理能力差异可能是条件变化的基础，因此我将量化营养如何影响生理和代谢性能，以及对精心设计的特征和偏好的相应影响。或者，情况的变化可能是由于个体收集、保存和使用信息的方式不同造成的，所以我将量化营养如何影响认知表现，以及对精心设计的特征和偏好的相应影响。这些实验将一起回答“什么是条件？”项目2测试环境引起的条件变化是否可以从父亲遗传给后代。通过整合行为、生态学、生理学、心理学、进化和遗传学的方法，我的研究计划将帮助生物学家了解交配偏好的进化，以及赋予健康的特征如何保持变异。

Finding a mate can be costly as it exposes females to predators and takes time away from other tasks. Understanding why mate preferences have evolved in the face of these costs is my primary research goal. Most indirect-fitness benefits hypotheses suggest mating preferences evolve because elaborate traits reflect greater offspring survival or reproductive success (good genes). Project 1 lays the foundation required to test the theory that secondary sexual traits are linked to condition by assessing how nutrition influences the physiological and cognitive foundations associated with performance trait variation. Differences in physiological capacity resulting from energy store disparities, muscle metabolic capacity, or metabolic rate may underlie variation in condition, so I will quantify how nutrition impacts physiological and metabolic performance and the corresponding impact on elaborate traits and preferences. Alternatively, variation in condition may result from differences in how individuals collect, retain and use information, so I will quantify how nutrition impacts cognitive performance and the corresponding impact on elaborate traits and preferences. Together, these experiments will answer “What is condition?”Projects 2 test whether environmentally induced variation in condition can be transmitted from father to offspring.By integrating approaches from behaviour, ecology, physiology, psychology, evolution and genetics, my research program will help biologists understand the evolution of mating preferences and how variation is maintained in traits that confer fitness.