Pace of Life Syndrome in an Arctic Hibernator

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

It is not clear why individuals within a population vary in their responsiveness to environmental change. Further, the consequences of this individual variation in terms of long-term population vulnerability to climate change is unknown. This is particularly important in the Arctic, where warming is occurring two to three times faster than the global average. This study will investigate how arctic ground squirrels are responding to changing environmental conditions during hibernation, as warming soils appear to be impacting the timing and duration of the hibernation season. The project will also assess whether correlated behaviors exist and examine whether this influences vulnerability to climate change. This study will integrate research and learning by training graduate students in ecophysiology and behavioral ecology and by providing opportunities for undergraduates to participate in field research. Undergraduate students will also be connected to Arctic research and climate change science through the development of a field workshop that provides placed-based learning opportunities that allows students to participate in “parallel” research focused on high altitude ground squirrels. A STEM outreach network will be established with middle and high school teachers in Colorado that brings the research into the classroom as students learn about physiological adaptation and climate change science. Climate warming has the potential to transform ecological relationships across the Arctic, yet the ability of scientists to predict how changes will manifest is constrained by limited knowledge of how environmental cues affect seasonal timing and life-history tradeoffs. Physiology, behavior, and interactions among phenotypic traits likely constrain life-history responses, yet the fitness consequences of such constraints are often unclear. The pace of life syndrome (POLS) is a promising framework for understanding how climate change might induce coordinated changes across many phenotypic traits, but a recent meta-analysis suggests empirical support for the POLS hypothesis is equivocal and it has been proposed that expected correlations between life-history and other traits may be obscured by environmental effects. This project will extend a multi-decadal study in northern Alaska which reveals climate change is affecting freeze-thaw cycles and temperatures of the soil active layer, which, in turn, are altering the hibernation physiology and phenology of arctic ground squirrels. This study will link phenotypic traits with metrics of fitness by combining biologging of behavioral and physiological traits with efforts to monitor individual survival and reproductive output, providing insight into how phenotypic plasticity confers resilience to ongoing climate change. To do so, researchers will (1) extend a long-term phenological and physiological dataset and determine how hibernacula conditions affect survival and reproduction, (2) examine whether personality, behavior, physiology, and life-history traits co-vary within the sexes consistent with the POLS hypothesis, and (3) manipulate individual access to food during development to establish how resource availability influences correlations among traits. Finally, the project will train students at multiple levels via involvement in the field research, integration of the research with college teaching, and outreach to middle and high school students. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.