长爪沙鼠集群生活的个性效应及其生态适应

It has always been one of the frontier issues that the ecological and evolutionary consequence or adaptive mechanism of group living in the cross-study of animal behavior, social biology and population ecology. The adaption of animal group living is related to the collective decision-making underlying the spatio-temporal dynamics arising from environmental pressure, physiological demand or social interactions. Many previous studies have deliberately neglected inter-individual differences of the collective decision-making. Individual fitness often depends on the within-group individual personality composition，in which different mixtures of personalities can lead to different group or colony personalities. The collective decision-making associated with personality may drive adaptation and evolution of group living. In this project we intend to monitor individual or group personalities, physiological hormones, performance of forage (or food storage), individual survival and reproduction or group dynamics of Mongolian gerbils underling different social context or environmental stress integrating field continuous capture-recapture and indoor simulation manipulation experiments. The main objectives : 1) to investigate the effect of (group) personality on social performance (such as foraging and storage) and their adapting preferences to different environmental pressures; 2) to reveal the mechanisms of the collective decision-making population that integrated personality behavior-physiological process, which driven the ecological and evolutionary consequence of group living in Mongolian gerbils. Our research results will provide scientific data for enriching the theoreties and hypothsises of the adaptation and evolution of social living in rodent animals, and help seeking effective ways to coordinate the human-animal relationship (or conflict).

探讨动物集群生态适应与进化机制，一直是动物行为学、社会生物学及种群过生态学领域交叉研究的前沿问题之一。集群生态适应结果取决于动物应对环境压力、生理需求和社会交往时空动态的群体决策。以往的很多研究忽视了个体差异在群体决策中的作用，个体差异稳定性可反映个体个性，与个性关联的群体决策可能驱动动物集群适应与进化。本项目拟通过标志重捕、行为实验跟踪以及生理学、分子遗传学手段，整合野外持续监测和室内模拟操控实验，测定长爪沙鼠在不同社群背景以及环境压力中动物个性及其相关生理激素变化与觅食（或贮食）或个体存活、繁殖的动态表现。以期：1）检验（群体）个性对集群生活社会性能（如觅食和贮食成效）的影响及其应对不同环境压力的适应倾向；2）揭示长爪沙鼠个性行为-生理整合驱动社群适应的群体决策机制，研究结果有望为丰富群居性啮齿动物社群适应和进化的学说和理论认识和寻求有效的协调人与动物的关系（或冲突）对策提供科学资料.

探讨动物集群生态适应与进化机制一直是动物行为学、社会生物学及种群过生态学领域交叉研究的前沿问题之一。以往很多研究忽视了动物个性在群体决策中的作用。本项目以长爪沙鼠（Meriones unguiculatus）为对象，通过标志重捕、行为实验跟踪以及生理学、生物信息学手段，整合野外持续监测和室内模拟操控实验，测定沙鼠在不同环境压力和社群背景下动物个性及其相关生理（能量代谢、肠道微生物、激素和体液免疫）变化与觅食（或贮食）或个体（群体）存活、繁殖的动态表现。以POLS理论和状态-行为反馈假说为理论框架，1）检验了沙鼠个性对集群生活社会性能（如觅食和贮食成效）的影响及行为对策、应激和免疫策略在应对不同环境压力的适应倾向；研究结果表明，无论在个体还是群体水平上，长爪沙鼠的觅食策略选择和越冬存活存在显著的个性效应。2）从能量学角度明确了动物个性的行为-生理整合驱动社群适应的群体决策机制。结果显示导致觅食策略差异的原因可能是勇敢-胆怯个性的内在能量状态和外部环境状态以及能量分配策略不同所致；此外，肠道微生物可能也通过调控能量代谢等途径参与调控宿主的个性。由此，鉴于不同个性沙鼠个体或群体应对觅食或贮食时天敌和竞争风险的适应差异及其生理状态响应特征，可以推测在自然条件下,单纯的勇敢个体群，受个体间相互容忍性较低以及在社群组建过程中能量和时间代价较高的限制，其群体适合度可能较低；但谨慎个体聚群显示相对低的体液免疫水平对其应对疾病感染不利，因此，个性混合群在长爪沙鼠自然种群中可能更为常见，且不同个性在繁殖期和贮食-越冬期集群生活中的所发挥的群体决策主导作用有所差异，如勇敢性个体可能在繁殖期的群体活动决策中显示主导地位。本研究结果首次尝试从生理学的角度解释个性差异及其在集群适应中的内在基础，为丰富群居性啮齿动物社群适应和进化的学说和理论认识以及寻求有效的鼠害防治新技术对策提供科学资料。