Integration of demographics and genetics to understand wildlife responses to changing habitats, climate, and human disturbance

整合人口统计和遗传学，以了解野生动物对不断变化的栖息地、气候和人类干扰的反应

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04251
• 负责人: Fedy, Brad
• 金额: $ 1.75万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=679802
• 关键词: Integration; demographics; genetics; understand; wildlife

Wildlife populations are experiencing unprecedented changes in habitat, climate, and human activities. Some of the most urgent ecological questions relate to understanding how animals will respond to these changes. Understanding species responses requires multiple approaches and integration across disciplines in wildlife ecology. This proposal presents a plan for integration across methodological approaches to address priority research questions in population ecology, habitat selection, and landscape genetics.******My students and I seek to understand how habitat, climate, and human activities interact to influence the distribution and abundance of wildlife populations. In this proposal, I outline a study of large-scale research in landscape genetics, focusing on greater sage-grouse, that ranges from the study site to the entire distribution of the species. Landscape genetic approaches are integral to understanding how landscape features affect the functional connectivity of populations. Landscape genetic studies seldom include data on the population demography of the study species and demographics can have important impacts on genetic structure. Animals select resources at multiple scales and the influence of multiple scales on structural connectivity has been a fruitful and illuminating area of research. My proposed research will parallel this line of inquiry by examining how scale influences landscape genetics and the integration of population demographics. This research represents an unprecedented opportunity that promises to provide novel insights into the relationships among population demography, genetics, and landscapes. ******Population cycles have long been of interest to ecologists and are ubiquitous across animal taxa from insects to ungulates. However, despite extensive research, the mechanisms driving population cycles are still poorly understood at southern latitudes. This proposal will examine and quantify the mechanisms driving large-scale population fluctuations and correlations. We will develop models to assess support for 5 mechanistic hypotheses underlying population cycles. These include density dependence, climate, habitat, management, and alternative prey. The proposed research will assess and fill important gaps in our understanding of these large-scale and ubiquitous patterns of population fluctuations.******A significant part of the value of this research lies in assembling the individual pieces of a landscape together into an integrated, spatially and temporally explicit whole. My application of landscape genetics and other sophisticated modelling approaches to wildlife ecology provides unique insights into the processes of population fluctuations, habitat use, and functional connectivity and the rare opportunity to explore a comprehensive assessment of wildlife responses across large spatial scales.

野生动物种群的栖息地、气候和人类活动正在经历前所未有的变化。 一些最紧迫的生态问题涉及了解动物将如何应对这些变化。了解物种反应需要多种方法和野生动物生态学跨学科的整合。 该提案提出了一项跨方法论整合的计划，以解决种群生态学、栖息地选择和景观遗传学中的优先研究问题。******我和我的学生寻求了解栖息地、气候和人类活动如何相互作用以产生影响野生动物种群的分布和丰富度。 在本提案中，我概述了一项大规模景观遗传学研究，重点关注鼠尾草，研究范围从研究地点到物种的整个分布。 景观遗传学方法对于理解景观特征如何影响种群的功能连通性至关重要。景观遗传学研究很少包括研究物种的人口统计数据，而人口统计可能对遗传结构产生重要影响。动物在多个尺度上选择资源，而多个尺度对结构连通性的影响一直是一个富有成果且富有启发性的研究领域。我提出的研究将通过研究规模如何影响景观遗传学和人口统计的整合来平行进行这一调查。这项研究代表了一个前所未有的机会，有望为人口统计、遗传学和景观之间的关系提供新的见解。 ******种群周期长期以来一直引起生态学家的兴趣，并且在从昆虫到有蹄类动物的动物类群中普遍存在。然而，尽管进行了广泛的研究，但对南部纬度地区驱动人口周期的机制仍然知之甚少。该提案将研究并量化驱动大规模人口波动和相关性的机制。我们将开发模型来评估对人口周期的 5 个机制假设的支持。这些包括密度依赖性、气候、栖息地、管理和替代猎物。拟议的研究将评估并填补我们对这些大规模且普遍存在的人口波动模式的理解中的重要空白。******这项研究的价值的一个重要部分在于将景观的各个部分组合在一起一个完整的、空间上和时间上明确的整体。我将景观遗传学和其他复杂的建模方法应用于野生动物生态学，为人口波动、栖息地利用和功能连通性的过程提供了独特的见解，并为探索跨大空间尺度的野生动物反应的全面评估提供了难得的机会。