Collaborative Research: Testing eco-evolutionary trophic cascades in aquatic ecosystems

合作研究：测试水生生态系统中的生态进化营养级联

• 批准号: 1457333
• 负责人: Eric Palkovacs
• 金额: $ 27.62万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-05-15 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1457333&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Testing; eco; evolutionary

Changes to predator communities are occurring on a global scale. Because top predators can exert strong pressures on other species in a community, it is important to understand the consequences of their losses or gains. Will re-introduction of wolves alter current elk or moose populations? Will the loss of marine predators cause fish communities to collapse? These expectations often generate controversy. This project tests how evolutionary responses of prey to their predators might alter commonly-expected results of cascading effects within food chains. Predation, trophic cascades, and evolution are features of all natural ecosystems. Understanding how these processes interact is fundamental to interpreting past ecosystem changes and to predicting future changes. The results from this study will directly inform many of the controversies attending management of large predators. High school teachers and undergraduate students with teaching aspirations will be introduced to the ecological relevance of evolution through hands-on involvement in the research. This teacher training program will target teachers and students from traditionally underrepresented groups who work, or plan to work, in high needs schools with diverse and underprivileged students. The study of eco-evolutionary dynamics considers how ongoing evolution interacts with ecological interactions to shape population, community and ecosystem processes. Intriguing case studies suggest the effects of contemporary evolution on ecology can be large, but this area of research lacks theory that would extend its general importance. This research serves as a potential general application of the broader synthetic theory of eco-evolutionary dynamics through study of trophic cascades. It will provide an initial test of the requisite conditions of eco-evolutionary trophic cascades and quantitatively compare the magnitude and pattern of their effects to those of classical density- and behaviorally-mediated trophic cascades to understand their importance. Field surveys, manipulative experiments, and common garden experiments will be integrated to test the following predictions: 1) prey feeding traits in wild populations differ predictably in response to predator presence or absence, 2) feeding trait differences are heritable, 3) heritable differences in prey traits affect the density and species composition of prey resources, and 4) effects on prey resources cascade down food chains to influence primary producers. These conditions will be tested using recently introduced populations of Western mosquitofish inhabiting ponds with or without predatory largemouth bass. Mosquitofish are a classic system for studying both trophic cascades and contemporary evolution, and preliminary evidence supports evolutionary trade-offs between predator avoidance and resource competition. Numerous wild populations, small body size, short life span, and easy husbandry make this species well suited for the combined field and laboratory assays required for this research.

捕食者社区的变化正在全球范围内发生。因为顶级捕食者可以对社区中的其他物种施加强大的压力，所以了解其损失或收益的后果很重要。狼的重新引入会改变当前的麋鹿或驼鹿种群吗？海洋掠食者的丧失会导致鱼类群落崩溃吗？这些期望通常引起争议。该项目测试猎物对捕食者的进化反应如何改变食物链中级联效应的普遍预期。捕食，营养级联和进化是所有自然生态系统的特征。了解这些过程如何相互作用是解释过去的生态系统变化和预测未来变化的基础。这项研究的结果将直接告知许多参与大型掠食者管理的争议。具有教学愿望的高中教师和本科生将通过动手参与研究来介绍进化的生态相关性。该教师培训计划将针对来自传统上代表性不足的团体的教师和学生，他们计划在高需求的学校中工作或计划工作。对生态进化动力学的研究考虑了持续的进化如何与生态相互作用相互作用以塑造人群，社区和生态系统过程。有趣的案例研究表明，当代进化对生态学的影响可能很大，但是这一研究领域缺乏将其一般重要性扩展的理论。这项研究是通过研究营养级联反应的生态进化动力学更广泛合成理论的潜在普遍应用。它将提供对生态进化的营养级联的必要条件的初步测试，并定量地将其效果的幅度和模式与经典密度和行为介导的营养级联反应的幅度和模式进行比较，以了解其重要性。 Field surveys, manipulative experiments, and common garden experiments will be integrated to test the following predictions: 1) prey feeding traits in wild populations differ predictably in response to predator presence or absence, 2) feeding trait differences are heritable, 3) heritable differences in prey traits affect the density and species composition of prey resources, and 4) effects on prey resources cascade down food chains to influence primary producers.这些条件将使用最近引入的西部蚊子居住的池塘种群进行测试，其中有或没有掠食性大嘴鲈鱼。蚊子是研究营养级联和当代进化的经典系统，初步证据支持捕食者回避和资源竞争之间的进化权衡。众多野生人群，体积小，寿命短，饲养简单，使该物种非常适合本研究所需的野外和实验室测定。