To everything a season: bioenergetics in seasonal environments

季节的一切：季节性环境中的生物能学

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06705
• 负责人: Humphries, Murray
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 依托单位: McGill University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=718432
• 关键词: everything; season; bioenergetics; seasonal; environments

Seasonality is an annual cycle comprised of wave-like variation in photoperiod - short then long then short again - and temperature - cold then warm then cold again. Seasons are fundamentally important to plants, animals, and people because light, snow, resources, and temperature have fundamental impacts on organismal function and interactions. But research tends to be conducted across only a fraction of the annual cycle and most ecological and evolutionary theory has ignored seasons and seasonality. We use a combination of laboratory, field, and modeling approaches to identify the ecological and evolutionary consequences of animal energetics (the process by which animals acquire and assimilate energy from the environment, and allocate assimilated energy between maintenance, growth, and reproduction). Our research is uniquely able to obtain integrated measures of the energy availability, acquisition, and expenditure of free--ranging wildlife and to embed these bioenergetic measures into a well-resolved life history and ecological context. The long-term objective of my Discovery Grant research program is to understand how bioenergetics filters environmental variation into the distribution, abundance and coexistence of wildlife populations within natural landscapes. Over the next five years, we will focus on seasonality and testing the hypothesis that, if wildlife populations are characterized by differential responses to environmental variation, changes in the duration and intensity of seasonal phases will alter the seasonal responses, interaction strengths, periods of advantage, and the persistence of wildlife populations. Field research will focus on four distinct predator--prey systems (lynx-coyote-hare-red squirrel in southwest Yukon, ungulates-large predators in North Yukon, meso-carnivores and their prey in Adirondacks, the social-ecology of local Indigenous food systems in Northern Quebec), all situated in boreal and/or subarctic environments, and all involving simultaneous monitoring of multiple predators and their alternative prey. In each system, and across all four systems, we will evaluate support for the differential seasonal response hypothesis as well as advance system-specific knowledge and the application of new knowledge to conservation action. Studying multiple systems in a similar manner allows generality to be assessed, specificities to be identified, and impact shared. This proposed research advances knowledge related to the physiology, behaviour, ecology, evolution, and natural history of northern wildlife and people, and how these inter-related aspects of biology combine with seasonality to determine the susceptibility of northern systems to environmental change.

季节性是一个年度周期，由光周期的波状变化（短然后长然后短）和温度（冷然后暖然后又冷）组成。季节对于植物、动物和人类来说至关重要，因为光、雪、资源和温度对有机体功能和相互作用具有根本性影响。但研究往往只针对年度周期的一小部分进行，大多数生态和进化理论都忽略了季节和季节性。我们结合实验室、现场和建模方法来确定动物能量学的生态和进化后果（动物从环境中获取和吸收能量，并在维持、生长和繁殖之间分配吸收的能量的过程）。我们的研究独特地能够获得自由放养野生动物的能量可用性、获取和消耗的综合测量，并将这些生物能量测量嵌入到明确的生活史和生态背景中。我的发现补助金研究计划的长期目标是了解生物能学如何将环境变化过滤到自然景观中野生动物种群的分布、丰富度和共存中。在接下来的五年中，我们将重点关注季节性并检验以下假设：如果野生动物种群对环境变化的反应不同，那么季节阶段的持续时间和强度的变化将改变季节反应、相互作用强度、优势时期，以及野生动物种群的持续存在。实地研究将集中于四种不同的捕食者-被捕食系统（育空地区西南部的猞猁、土狼、野兔、红松鼠、育空地区北部的有蹄类大型捕食者、阿迪朗达克山脉的中型食肉动物及其猎物、当地土著食物的社会生态）魁北克省北部的系统），全部位于北方和/或亚北极环境中，并且全部涉及同时监测多个捕食者及其替代方案猎物。在每个系统以及所有四个系统中，我们将评估对差异季节性响应假设的支持，并推进特定系统的知识以及新知识在保护行动中的应用。以类似的方式研究多个系统可以评估通用性、识别特殊性并共享影响。这项拟议的研究推进了与北方野生动物和人类的生理学、行为、生态、进化和自然历史相关的知识，以及生物学的这些相互关联的方面如何与季节性相结合，以确定北方系统对环境变化的敏感性。