Collaborative Research: Costs and Trade-offs of Phenotypically Flexible Responses to Winter Temperature Variability in Birds

合作研究：鸟类对冬季温度变化的表型灵活反应的成本和权衡

• 批准号: 2224556
• 负责人: Yufeng Zhang
• 金额: $ 39.19万
• 依托单位: University of Memphis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-01 至 2026-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2224556&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Costs; Trade; offs

Global climate change is producing winter warming but also more variable winter temperatures. This variability includes more frequent cold snaps. This increase in temperature fluctuation may create challenges for birds and other animals. Birds can adjust their physiology to respond to fluctuating temperatures. It is uncertain, however, if birds can respond fast enough to match these fluctuations. This uncertainty makes conservation planning for winter birds difficult. This project will study how birds respond to fluctuations in winter temperatures. The study will also identify costs of adjusting physiology that might limit how well birds can respond to fluctuating temperatures. Both natural and laboratory studies will be used to answer questions about how birds are able to adjust to temperature fluctuations. These studies will also determine what levels (tissues, cells, sub-cellular) are involved in these adjustments. The project will provide a broad view of the ability of birds to respond to temperature fluctuations expected under future climate change. The project will involve early-career and established faculty and students at various stages in their careers. The studies will also engage Indigenous and African-American college students. Another goal of the project is to involve a diversity of people to help improve scientific literacy. The project targets activities for elementary and high school students and the general public for this purpose. Data from the project are also expected to assist development of modeling approaches to predict bird responses to climate change to better assess conservation impacts. Mean winter temperatures are increasing rapidly in the north-central U.S. but superimposed on this trend is more temperature variability, including more frequent cold snaps. Such punctuated cold periods will require flexible adjustments of thermoregulatory physiology of birds to match environmental conditions and could lead to physiology-environment mismatches. Flexible physiological responses allow birds to better match metabolic phenotypes to variable climates and can produce fitness benefits. The costs of such flexibility, however, are poorly known, are recommended targets of future research, and are critical elements to understand the capacities of organisms to respond to increasing climatic variability projected by climate change models. This project examines avian metabolic flexibility in response to fluctuating temperatures at organismal, cellular and molecular levels, including studies examining responses to natural seasonal and within-season temperature variation and experimental temperature acclimation studies with warm, cold, and fluctuating cold temperatures. These integrative studies will provide an unprecedented view of the mechanisms, costs, trade-offs, and fitness consequences of flexible metabolic responses of birds to increasing temperature variability expected under future climate change scenarios. The collaborative project will involve senior and junior-level faculty, a postdoctoral fellow, graduate and undergraduate students. The project will also engage Indigenous and African-American undergraduate students and will involve K-12 students and the general public in scientific activities related to project goals to help improve scientific literacy. Data from the project are also expected to benefit next-generation models of bird responses to climate change by facilitating incorporation of physiological flexibility and temperature variability into such models.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

全球气候变化正在产生冬季变暖，但冬季温度也会变化。这种可变性包括更频繁的冷扣。温度波动的升高可能会对鸟类和其他动物造成挑战。鸟类可以调整生理学以应对波动的温度。但是，如果鸟类能够足够快地响应以匹配这些波动，这是不确定的。这种不确定性使冬季鸟类的保护计划变得困难。该项目将研究鸟类如何在冬季温度下对波动的反应。该研究还将确定调整生理的成本，这可能会限制鸟类对温度波动的反应。天然和实验室研究都将用于回答有关鸟类如何适应温度波动的问题。这些研究还将确定这些调整涉及哪些水平（组织，细胞，亚细胞）。该项目将为鸟类在未来气候变化下预期的温度波动做出响应的能力提供广泛的看法。该项目将在职业生涯的各个阶段涉及早期职业人士，并建立了教职员工和学生。这些研究还将吸引土著和非裔美国大学的学生。该项目的另一个目标是涉及多样的人，以帮助提高科学素养。为此，该项目针对小学和高中生以及公众的活动为目标。还期望该项目的数据有助于开发建模方法，以预测鸟类对气候变化的反应，以更好地评估保护影响。在美国中北部，平均冬季温度正在迅速升高，但叠加在这种趋势上是温度变化更大，包括更频繁的冷阵。这种打点的寒冷时期将需要灵活地调整鸟类的温度调节生理，以匹配环境条件，并可能导致生理环境不匹配。灵活的生理反应使鸟类可以更好地将代谢表型与可变气候相匹配，并可以产生健身益处。但是，这种灵活性的成本是未来研究的推荐目标，是了解生物体能够应对气候变化模型预测的气候变异性的增加的关键要素。该项目研究了禽类代谢灵活性，以响应生物，细胞和分子水平的波动温度的波动，包括​​研究对自然季节和季节内温度变化的反应以及温暖，寒冷和寒冷温度波动的反应。这些综合研究将提供前所未有的观点，了解鸟类在未来气候变化情景下预期预期的温度可变性的柔性代谢反应的机制，成本，权衡和适应性后果。该协作项目将涉及博士后研究生，研究生和本科生的高级和初级教师。该项目还将参与土著和非裔美国人的本科生，并将涉及K-12学生和公众参与与项目目标有关的科学活动，以帮助提高科学素养。预计该项目的数据还将通过促进生理灵活性和温度可变性纳入此类模型，从而使下一代鸟类对气候变化的反应受益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来获得支持的。