Individuals differ in how well they survive, grow and reproduce, but the reasons for these differences are not well understood. Previous work has shown that either the intrinsic quality of the individual, the quality of the environment in which they were raised, the quality of the environment that they inhabit, or the social environment, may affect an individual's success. No study has examined the relative importance of all these factors within a single species. The central aim of this study is to elucidate the reason for differences in the performance of individuals in nature by manipulating all of these factors simultaneously. Molecular genetic characterization of individuals will be combined with large scale field experiments to test the magnitude of these factors in the ant model system, Pogonomyrmex occidentalis. The results of these experiments will be combined with an ongoing twenty-year study of the population biology of this species to provide a comprehensive measure of the determinants of individual success. This work will contribute to the development of biological infrastructure and to student training. The project will involve undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in scientific research and will provide mentoring to encourage their continuation in science, technology and engineering careers post graduation. The data from this study will be made available through Dryad (datadryad.org) and the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (knb.ecoinformatics.org).
