Living at the edge: causes and consequences of individual variation in a changing world

生活在边缘：不断变化的世界中个体差异的原因和后果

• 批准号: NE/W000156/1
• 负责人: Wiebke Schuett
• 金额: $ 70.62万
• 依托单位: University of Sussex
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FW000156%2F1
• 关键词: Living; edge; causes; consequences; individual

Environmental conditions change. How an organism reacts to such changes, for instance in temperature or food availability, can have profound consequences for its survival and reproduction (i.e. its fitness) and influence population dynamics. Understanding how organisms are influenced by environmental conditions is a fundamental issue in the biosciences, and can also help conserve species under pressure of rapid human-induced environmental change.Ecological studies typically address the above problem using species trait averages despite evidence that within-species variation in phenotypic traits is the raw material for adaptive evolutionary change. Within a population, individuals often show consistent behavioural differences ('personality differences') and these may evolve together with physiological, morphological and life-history traits forming 'syndromes' of correlated traits. Environmental conditions are hypothesised to affect the evolution of these syndromes but empirical evidence is lacking currently. Given that correlated trait evolution probably also affects individual fitness, as well as population or community dynamics, it is likely to have profound implications for key evolutionary and ecological processes. Experimental, multi-trait studies in natural habitats that test the causes and consequences of within-species trait variation and trait covariances (trait 'syndromes') across environmental conditions are needed to advance our understanding of how environmental conditions shape individual variation. Such studies will also enable more accurate predictions about how human-induced environmental change influences populations and species. We will conduct such an experimental, multi-trait study. This is possible because we have identified a well-suited study organism, a flightless forest-dwelling ground beetle with immediate response to changes in environmental conditions and limited dispersal power, allowing us to address our hypotheses in rigorous experiments.We will test whether individuals of our model species vary systematically in their trait values (strength at which a trait is expressed) and covariances among behavioural, physiological and morphological traits across environmental conditions. We will assess the underlying mechanisms and fitness consequences of this differentiation. We will test whether trait differences predict individual survival and reproduction in different environmental conditions, including environmental change, and will assess resulting consequences on population dynamics. We will study individuals at forest cores and edges (edges are habitat boundaries with altered environmental conditions, usually through land use change), and will identify the main environmental variables that shape individual differences. We will conduct a combination of translocation and enclosure experiments to expose individuals to different environmental conditions and measure their reaction to change, and the fitness consequences thereof. Our project will provide novel insights into causes and consequences of within-species trait variation and covariances, and their interplay with environmental conditions. Our study will be one of the first to address the role of within-species variation on short- and longer-term responses to changed environmental conditions using a multi-trait, covariance approach spanning behaviour, morphology, metabolism and fitness within and across generations. For the first time, we will assess experimentally the role of within-species trait variation and covariances on individuals' response to and fitness consequences of edge effects in an insect species under natural conditions. Our project will also provide insight into the mechanisms underlying effects of human-induced environmental change on insects in particular, and animals more generally.

环境条件发生了变化。生物体对这种变化的反应，例如温度或食物的可用性，可能会对其生存和繁殖（即其适应性）产生深远的影响，并影响人口动态。了解生物如何受环境条件的影响是生物科学中的一个基本问题，也可以在快速的人类引起的环境变化的压力下帮助保护物种。生态学研究通常使用物种特征平均来解决上述问题，尽管有证据表明种类内部差异在表型中，性状是自适应进化变化的原材料。在人群中，个人通常会表现出一致的行为差异（“人格差异”），这些行为差异可能会随着相关性状的“综合症”的生理，形态和生活创造性的发展。假设环境条件会影响这些综合征的演变，但目前缺乏经验证据。鉴于相关的特质进化也可能影响个人的健康以及人群或社区动态，因此它可能对关键进化和生态过程产生深远的影响。需要在自然栖息地中进行实验性特征研究，这些研究需要在环境条件上测试种类内部性状变化和特质协方差（性状“综合征”）的原因和后果，以促进我们对环境条件如何塑造个人变异的理解。此类研究还将对人类诱发的环境变化如何影响种群和物种进行更准确的预测。我们将进行这样的实验性多特征研究。这是可能的，因为我们已经确定了一个非常适合的研究生物，这是一种无飞行的森林居住地甲虫，对环境条件变化和有限的分散能力有直接响应，使我们能够在严格的实验中解决我们的假设。我们将测试个人是否会测试个人是否会测试我们的模型物种在其性状值（表达性状表达的强度）和行为，生理和形态学特征之间的协方差方面有系统的变化。我们将评估这种分化的潜在机制和适应性后果。我们将测试特征差异是否可以预测不同环境条件（包括环境变化）的个人生存和繁殖，并将评估对人口动态的影响。我们将在森林核心和边缘研究个体（边缘是环境条件改变的栖息地边界，通常是通过土地使用变化），并将确定塑造个体差异的主要环境变量。我们将进行易位和外壳实验的结合，以使个人暴露于不同的环境条件，并衡量其对变化的反应及其适应性后果。我们的项目将为内部特征变化和协方差及其与环境条件的相互作用提供新的见解。我们的研究将是最早通过多特征，协方差方法跨越行为，形态学，代谢和适应性的多特征，协方差方法来解决对环境条件的短期和长期响应作用的作用之一。我们将第一次通过实验评估种类内部特征变化和协方差对个体对昆虫物种在自然条件下边缘效应的反应和适应性后果的作用。我们的项目还将深入了解人类引起的环境变化尤其是对昆虫，更普遍的动物的机制。