Research Initiation Award: Physical forces impacting the temporal variability of mesopelagic prey at the Cape Hatteras marine top-predator diversity hotspot

历史黑人学院和大学-本科项目(HBCU-UP)研究启动奖(RIA)为HBCU的STEM初级教员提供支持，他们开始建立研究项目，以及为职业生涯中期可能在担任行政职位后重返教职队伍或需要重新定向和重建研究项目的教师提供支持。教职员工可以在他们的家乡机构、NSF资助的中心、研究密集型机构或国家实验室进行研究。RIA项目有望帮助教师进一步提高研究能力和效率，改善其所在机构的研究和教学，并让本科生参与研究体验。在国家科学基金会的支持下，萨凡纳州立大学(SSU)将开展研究，旨在了解物理动力学对中上层群落结构的影响及其在顶级捕食者生态中的作用。这个项目将被用来加强SSU的教与学，因此，是为了增加本科教育中有市场的量化技能，并为我们多样化的本科生为研究生院或就业市场做准备。研究和教育工作将有助于上海州立大学科学与技术学院(COST)通过扩大现有的研究能力，实现“在STEM领域提供高质量的教育、奖学金和研究”的使命。此外，通过为本科生提供参与尖端海洋学研究的机会和获得先进海洋数据方法的指导，该项目解决了为下一代地球科学装备多样化学生群体的需要，特别是未来几年/十年将最需要的研究和量化技能。拟议研究的目标是了解中层海洋群落的海洋学与海洋哺乳动物顶端捕食者之间的关系。该项目的具体目标是：1)描述该区域物理海洋学的时间变异性；2)描述中上层海洋群落的时间变异性；3)确定物理海洋环境、中上层捕食场和深潜海洋哺乳动物发声之间的时间联系。该项目将以一种新颖的方式应用传感器，为应用和设计专门针对从自然生境和中上层捕食者群落到顶端捕食者的复杂生态系统相互作用的多传感器系泊组件提供了一个范例。这项研究的发现将为改进海洋顶级捕食者及其猎物的研究迈出一大步，海洋顶级捕食者及其猎物的重点正从分布和丰度转向生态系统相互作用。该项目将与杜克大学合作进行。

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) Research Initiation Awards (RIAs) provide support to STEM junior faculty at HBCUs who are starting to build a research program, as well as for mid-career faculty who may have returned to the faculty ranks after holding an administrative post or who need to redirect and rebuild a research program. Faculty members may pursue research at their home institution, at an NSF-funded Center, at a research intensive institution or at a national laboratory. The RIA projects are expected to help further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, to improve research and teaching at his or her home institution, and to involve undergraduate students in research experiences. With support from the National Science Foundation, Savannah State University (SSU) will conduct research aimed at understanding the influence of physical dynamics on the mesopelagic community structure and its role in top predator ecology. This project will be used to enhance teaching and learning at SSU and thus, is geared for increasing marketable quantitative skills in undergraduate education and for preparing our diverse undergraduates for graduate school or the job market. The research and educational efforts will contribute to the mission of SSU's College of Sciences and Technology (COST) to "delivering high quality education, scholarship, and research in STEM" by expanding its existing research capacity. In addition, by providing the opportunities for undergraduates to participate in cutting-edge oceanographic research and gain mentorship in advanced oceanographic data methods, this project addresses the need to equip a diverse student population for the next generation of geosciences, particularly with the research and quantitative skills that will be in greatest demand in the coming years/decades.The goal of the proposed study is to understand the relationships among the oceanography of the mesopelagic community and marine mammal top predators. The specific aims of this project are to: 1) describe the temporal variability of the physical oceanography of the region; 2) describe the temporal variability in the mesopelagic community; and 3) determine temporal linkages among the physical oceanographic setting, mesopelagic prey field, and vocalizing deep-diving marine mammals. This project will result in the application of sensors in a novel way, providing an example of the application and design of multi-sensor mooring package specifically targeted for the measurements of complex ecosystem interactions ranging from the physical habitat and the mesopelagic prey community all the way to apex predators. The findings from this study will provide a great step towards improving the study of marine top predators and their prey, whose focus is shifting from distribution and abundance to ecosystem interactions. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Duke University.