CAREER: Environmental Drivers of Life History Variation in Coastal Ecosystems

不同地区和不同时期资源可得性的差异预计会导致动物种群生活史特征的差异。虽然生命史变异已经用实验方法进行了研究，但在自然系统中对其了解甚少。本研究将探讨现代沿海生态系统中双壳类软体动物的资源可利用性与卵大小之间的关系。该指数将比较现代人口与历史人口，以确定人口对可用资源变化的反应率。此外，本研究旨在增加参与地球和海洋科学的学生的多样性，方法是为富兰克林和马歇尔学院（Franklin and Marshall College）未被充分代表的少数族裔本科生建立一个管道，包括早期参与实地和实验室研究，以及一个涉及墨西哥湾沿岸初中学生和教师的跨学科拓展项目。这项研究将包括与本科生团队在墨西哥湾北部沿初级生产梯度连续数年取样当代和历史双壳类种群。对路易斯安那州、阿拉巴马州和佛罗里达州沿海地区当代种群的软体动物壳进行同位素分析，将用于校准当今初级产量、海面温度和幼虫特征之间的关系。环境条件和生命史之间的当代关系将被用来研究墨西哥湾北部过去几千年来生命史变化的环境相关因素。这项研究还将与现有的博物馆藏品合作，在更广泛的空间尺度上研究生活史特征与环境梯度之间的关系。这项研究将包括在阿拉巴马州和路易斯安那州沿海地区开展一个综合推广项目，让初中学生和教师通过视觉艺术和由放射性碳定年的贝壳提供的历史镜头重建人类环境历史，这是计划研究活动的一部分。研究结果将通过本科生研究人员和PI的会议报告、出版物、公共数据库以及在墨西哥湾沿岸海洋实验室和其他公共场所合作的大学预科学生环境艺术作品展览来传播。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Differences in the availability of resources among regions and over time are expected to lead to differences in life history traits in animal populations. While life history variation has been investigated using experimental approaches, it is poorly understood in natural systems. This study will investigate the relationships between resource availability and the egg size of bivalve molluscs in modern coastal ecosystems. The PI will compare modern populations with historical populations to determine the rates at which populations have responded to changes in resource availability. In addition, this study aims to increase the diversity of students participating in Earth and ocean sciences through the development of a pipeline for underrepresented minority undergraduates at Franklin and Marshall College that involves early engagement in field and laboratory research and an interdisciplinary outreach program involving junior high school students and teachers in the Gulf Coast.This study will involve successive years of sampling contemporary and historical bivalve populations along a primary production gradient in the northern Gulf of Mexico with teams of undergraduate students. Isotopic analyses of mollusk shells from contemporary populations in coastal Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida will be used to calibrate the relationships between present-day primary production, sea surface temperature, and larval traits. Contemporary relationships between environmental conditions and life history will be used to investigate environmental correlates of life history variation in the northern Gulf of Mexico over past millennia. This study also will work with existing museum collections to examine the associations between life history traits and environmental gradients over broader spatial scales. This study will include an integrated outreach program in coastal Alabama and Louisiana that engages junior high school students and teachers in reconstructing human-environmental history through the visual arts and the historical lens provided by shells radiocarbon-dated as a part of the planned research activities. Results will be disseminated through conference presentations by undergraduate researchers and the PI, publications, public databases, and exhibition of pre-college student environmental artwork at collaborating Gulf Coast marine labs and other public venues.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.