Evolution and Ecology of Social Behaviour

安全的废水管理是一项全球性挑战。虽然加拿大的大多数城市使用处理系统处理废水，但经处理的废水仍然含有各种污染物，是水生生态系统中最大的污染点源。可悲的是，由经处理的废水中的营养物提供的丰富食物来源常常将动物吸引到经处理的废水被排放的区域。众所周知，暴露于经处理的废水中的化学物质会改变动物的行为，但迄今为止，研究人员主要关注生殖行为和运动等简单行为的研究。我们几乎不知道长期暴露于处理过的废水如何影响复杂的社会行为，如群体聚集和社会协调（这可以促进食物获取和捕食者回避）。社会行为对个人的健康有很大的好处，同时也会对人口增长和恢复力产生影响。 我的研究计划的长期目标是了解复杂的社会性是如何以及为什么进化和维持的，以及人类的影响如何影响动物的行为。这项研究计划利用了我在这两个领域的研究专长，并建立在经验，工具和合作已经到位。 这项建议的目的是确定如何废水无处不在的环境压力影响鱼类的社会行为。使用多学科的方法，结合行为，生态，生理和生态毒理学研究工具，我和我的学生将调查废水暴露影响鱼类的社会结构和社会行为的无数方式，以及季节性和社会环境如何调节废水暴露的影响。 为了实现这一目标，我提出了一系列的12项研究与黑头呆鱼（黑头呆鱼），利用强大的新工具，同时测量多个人来监测代谢率和群体凝聚力。我们的研究结果将塑造上级废水处理管理，建立实验室生态毒理学研究的更大的生态有效性，改善生态风险评估，并告知加拿大和全球人类对水生生态系统的影响的缓解。最后一个好处，也是我的一个优先事项，是拟议的研究将创造一个多样化和包容性的培训环境，由一个既定的和坚定的女科学家领导，这将支持下一代加拿大水生环境生态学家和进化行为科学家。

Safe wastewater management is a global challenge. While most municipalities in Canada use treatment systems to process wastewater, treated wastewater effluent still contains a mixture of contaminants, comprising the largest point source of pollution in aquatic ecosystems. Sadly, the rich food sources supp¬lied by the nutrients in treated wastewater often attract animals to areas where treated wastewater is discharged. Exposure to the chemicals in treated wastewater is known to alter animals behaviour, but to date researchers have mainly focused studies on reproductive behaviour and simple behaviours such as locomotion. We know virtually nothing about how chronic exposure to treated wastewater influences complex social behaviours such as group aggregation and social coordination (which can promote food acquisition and predator avoidance). Social behaviours can have large fitness benefits for individuals and concomitant impacts on population growth and resilience. The long-term goals of my research program are to understand how and why complex sociality evolved and is maintained, and how human impacts influence animal behaviour. This research proposal leverages my research expertise in both these areas and builds upon experience, tools, and collaborations that are already in place. The aim of this proposal is to determine how wastewater-a ubiquitous environmental stressor-impacts the social behaviour of fishes. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines behavioural, ecological, physiological, and ecotoxicological research tools, my students and I will investigate the myriad ways that wastewater exposure affects the social structure and social behaviour of fishes, and how seasonality and the social environment modulate the impacts of wastewater exposures. To address this aim, I propose a series of 12 studies with fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) that take advantage of powerful new tools for simultaneous measurement of multiple individuals to monitor metabolic rates and group cohesion. Our results will shape superior wastewater treatment management, establish greater ecological validity of laboratory ecotoxicology research, improve ecological risk assessment, and inform the mitigation of human impacts on aquatic ecosystems in Canada and globally. A final benefit, and a priority for me, is that the proposed research will create a diverse and inclusive training environment-led by an established and committed woman scientist-that will support the next generation of Canadian aquatic environmental ecologists and evolutionary behavioural scientists.