Natural tags to Estimate the Value of Juvenile Nurseries

评估幼苗保育园价值的自然标签

• 批准号: 0525964
• 负责人: Cynthia Jones
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Old Dominion University Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0525964&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Natural; tags; Estimate; Value; Juvenile

The use of tags has longstanding value in ecology for estimating vital rates in populations. Although largely developed by wildlife biologists, the use of tags is invaluable in estimating population dynamics in marine organisms. This proposal will use a natural tag to determine habitat-specific survival of an organism from birth to adulthood. We use otolith chemistry as our natural tag and we measure the relative survival of fish as a function of their seagrass nursery. However, the technique to measure relative survival can be done with any organism that carries a natural tag during its lifetime. The natural tag could be a genetic marker and the organism could be a euphausid. The problem could be estimating the value of a seagrass nursery to fish, or the impact of the breakup of an Antarctic ice shelf on euphausid populations. To study either scenario, it is first necessary to have a reliable natural tag that is habitat specific and a method of estimating survival with it. Otoliths provide an ideal natural tag because they form before hatching, are metabolically inert, form daily and yearly layers that are not resorbed and reflect the environment in which the fish has lived. They provide a chronology of habitat provenance; every habitat change is recorded and can be matched to a calendar of life-history events. Otolith chemistry has seen burgeoning use to measure population structure and connectivity. It has provided better spatial resolution than genetic markers, allowing scientists to mark habitat use at sub-population levels. For example, in seagrasses, habitat use can be measured at the order of 10 km resolution. Scientists worldwide now use otolith chemistry to measure movement and mixing of populations. However, to our knowledge, otolith chemistry has not yet been used to measure habitat-specific survival from early life-history to adulthood as we propose here. A habitat-specific measure of survival to adulthood will open many lines of research: evaluating anthropogenic watershed effects on estuarine ecosystems, providing reliable measures of essential fish habitat, and helping to choose sites for marine protected areas, among others.Intellectual Merit - The relative contribution of nursery habitats has been recognized but rarely tested in the field directly. It is not sufficient to measure a single factor such as density of juveniles; the importance of a nursery habitat relies on its relative production of adults compared to other juvenile habitats. This project will provide a direct test of seagrass habitats as nurseries for a valued fish, spotted seatrout, in Chesapeake Bay. Although otolith chemistry is widely used as a natural tag to demonstrate philopatry and movement, it has not been used to establish provenance and subsequent survival that is habitat-specific. This project will be the first use of otolith chemistry to establish habitat-specific survival of recruits. Development and demonstration of this technique will expand the value of this natural tag and will help inspire others to advance the use of natural tags in resource management.Broader Impacts - This project will provide training for graduate and undergraduate students in otolith chemistry (isotope and trace element geochemistry) and statistical modeling. Two minority students with interest in the project will work on it, a Hispanic PhD candidate and an African-American undergraduate. Further, parts of this project will be used to support minority undergraduates in the REU MUST program at ODU. The novel approaches will be used as examples of teaching modules in marine science, in collaboration with scientists in the departments of Biology, Chemistry and Oceanography at ODU.

标签的使用在生态学上具有长期的价值，用于估计种群的生命率。 虽然主要是由野生生物学家开发的，但标签的使用在估计海洋生物的种群动态方面是非常宝贵的。该提案将使用一种天然标签来确定生物体从出生到成年的特定生存环境。我们使用耳石化学作为我们的天然标签，我们测量鱼类的相对生存作为其海草苗圃的功能。 然而，测量相对存活率的技术可以用任何在其一生中携带天然标签的生物体来完成。天然标签可以是遗传标记，生物体可以是磷虾。问题可能是估计海草苗圃对鱼类的价值，或者南极冰架破裂对磷虾种群的影响。 要研究这两种情况，首先需要有一个可靠的天然标签，是栖息地的具体和估计生存的方法。耳石提供了一个理想的天然标签，因为它们形成孵化前，是代谢惰性，形成每天和每年的层，不被吸收，并反映了鱼的生活环境。它们提供了栖息地起源的年表;每一个栖息地的变化都被记录下来，并可以与生活史事件的日历相匹配。 耳石化学已被用于测量人口结构和连通性。它提供了比遗传标记更好的空间分辨率，使科学家能够在亚种群水平上标记栖息地的使用。 例如，在海草中，生境利用可以以10公里的分辨率进行测量。 世界各地的科学家现在使用耳石化学来测量人口的移动和混合。然而，据我们所知，耳石化学还没有被用来衡量栖息地特定的生存从早期的生活史到成年，我们在这里提出。一个栖息地的具体措施，生存到成年期将打开许多线的研究：评估河口生态系统的人为流域影响，提供可靠的措施，重要的鱼类栖息地，并帮助选择网站的海洋保护区，除其他外。智力优点-苗圃栖息地的相对贡献已被公认，但很少在现场直接测试。 这是不够的，以衡量一个单一的因素，如青少年的密度;苗圃栖息地的重要性依赖于其相对生产的成年人相比，其他青少年栖息地。 该项目将提供一个直接的测试海草栖息地作为苗圃的一个有价值的鱼，发现seatrout，在切萨皮克湾。虽然耳石化学被广泛用作一个自然的标签，以证明philopatry和运动，它还没有被用来建立原产地和随后的生存是栖息地特定的。 该项目将是第一次使用耳石化学来建立新兵的栖息地特异性生存。 这项技术的发展和示范将扩大这种天然标签的价值，并将有助于激励其他人在资源管理中推进天然标签的使用。更广泛的影响-本项目将为研究生和本科生提供耳石化学（同位素和微量元素地球化学）和统计建模方面的培训。 两名对该项目感兴趣的少数民族学生将从事这项工作，一名西班牙裔博士候选人和一名非洲裔美国本科生。 此外，该项目的一部分将用于支持少数民族本科生在ODU的REU必须程序。 新的方法将被用作海洋科学教学模块的例子，与ODU生物学，化学和海洋学系的科学家合作。