项目编号: | 1601804
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项目名称: | DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The role of the gut microbiome in individual specialization and population-level niche partitioning |
作者: | Jacob Goheen
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承担单位: | University of Wyoming
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批准年: | 2016
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开始日期: | 2016-05-01
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结束日期: | 2017-04-30
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资助金额: | 18698
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资助来源: | US-NSF
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项目类别: | Standard Grant
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国家: | US
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语种: | 英语
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特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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英文关键词: | moose
; gut microbe
; diet
; project
; result
; early career researcher
|
英文摘要: | Wildlife affect society in positive and negative ways. For example, moose have economic and cultural value for hunters and for tourists, but overabundant populations of moose can destroy crops and endanger motorists. This project will examine how food availability affects moose population growth and decline and advance general understanding of the number of animals an area can support. Results will guide decisions about managing endangered, overabundant, and alien species. The researchers will work with state and local agencies in Wyoming to develop programs to monitor wildlife habitat and nutritional conditions. Results will be communicated to the public in partnership with the Wildlife Migration Initiative. The project will both advance training of an early career researcher and produce new tools to estimate food limitation for wildlife populations. These tools will be available to state management agencies throughout Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Washington.
This project will characterize diet and the digestive physiology of moose across eight populations experiencing different levels of plant abundance. Investigators will measure abundance of forage plants along with levels of body fat and reproduction, which indicate how much forage is available. Fecal samples from each population will be used to quantify diet. DNA analyses of feces will identify individual moose and their gender. Measures of plant availability, body fat, reproduction and diet will demonstrate if moose adjust their diets when particular plants becomes scarce. Moose and other large herbivores are ruminants, relying on highly specialized guts that cultivate microbes to digest plant fibers and toxins that other animals cannot. The ability of moose to shift their diets when food becomes scarce may depend on the ability of their gut microbes to accommodate new diets. The alternate hypothesis that will be tested is that moose diets and their gut microbes are inherited and are resistant to changes in food availability. To answer these questions, microbial DNA found in feces will be used to quantify the relationship between gut microbes, the genetic relatedness of individual moose, and moose diets. Results of this project will advance understanding of how food supply drives population increase or decline. |
资源类型: | 项目
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标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/92449
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Appears in Collections: | 全球变化的国际研究计划 科学计划与规划
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Recommended Citation: |
Jacob Goheen. DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The role of the gut microbiome in individual specialization and population-level niche partitioning. 2016-01-01.
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