NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Trophic response of marine top predators to decadal changes in food web structure

这项行动资助了2019财年NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，使用生物收集的研究。该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式利用生物收藏。在过去的世纪里，由于气候变化和渔业的迅速扩张，世界海洋经历了前所未有的变化。揭示这些耦合的环境压力之间的关系及其对海洋顶级捕食者（例如，海洋哺乳动物、海龟等）对我们理解海洋生态系统的功能、健康、复原力和对环境扰动的适应至关重要。该项目将应用尖端的分子化学技术，从多个研究集合中存档的海洋哺乳动物和海龟组织，以研究自19世纪末以来，为了应对气候和渔业的变化，觅食策略和食物网结构发生了怎样的变化。这些信息可用于预测海洋捕食者及其控制的食物网将如何应对即将到来的世纪的未来生态系统变化。该项目将利用氨基酸同位素地球化学来重建食物网结构关键参数的变化（例如，营养位置，生态位宽度，食物网基线），支持自19世纪末以来在北大西洋西部常见的海豚，鼠海豚和红海龟。具体而言，这些数据将用于检验三个关键假设：1）与主要气候变化相关的海洋生产力的年代际变化是否会导致海洋顶级捕食者营养生态位的扩大/缩小，2）猎物和捕食者丰度的下降是否会导致海洋顶级捕食者通过在较低营养级觅食或扩大其营养生态位来补偿，3）同域物种恢复引起的种间竞争增加是否会导致营养生态位收缩。这种多物种的方法将解决营养对环境变化的反应相互矛盾的帐户。作为该项目的一部分，该研究员将与罗得岛大学内部空间中心合作，制作与海洋科学和项目活动有关的教育短片和互动节目。利用URI-ISC独特的远程呈现能力，将使用外展产品和计划来吸引公众和跨多个平台的下一代科学家（例如，社交媒体，K-12教室）。该项目还将通过利用URI赞助的项目来支持研究参与和培训的多样性，这些项目扩大了STEM中代表性不足的群体的参与。该奖项反映了NSF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而被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. The World Ocean has experienced unprecedented changes over the past century as a result of climate change and the rapid expansion of fisheries. Uncovering the relationships between these coupled environmental stressors and their impact on the feeding behavior of marine top predators (e.g., marine mammals, sea turtles) is critical to our understanding of the functioning, health, resilience, and adaptation of marine ecosystems to environmental disturbance. This project will apply cutting-edge molecular chemistry techniques to archived marine mammal and sea turtle tissues from multiple research collections to examine how foraging strategies and food web structure have changed since the late 19th century in response to changes in climate and fishing. Such information can be used to predict how marine predators and the food webs they control will respond to future ecosystem change in the upcoming century.The project will use amino acid isotope geochemistry to reconstruct changes in critical parameters of food web architecture (e.g., trophic position, niche breadth, food web baseline) supporting common bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoises, and loggerhead sea turtles in the western North Atlantic since the late 1800's. Specifically, these data will be used to test three key hypotheses: 1) do decadal shifts in ocean productivity associated with major climatic shifts cause expansion/contraction of marine top predator trophic niches, 2) do declining prey and predator abundances cause marine top predators to compensate by foraging at lower trophic levels or expanding their trophic niches, 3) does increased interspecific competition from the recovery of sympatric species cause trophic niches to contract. This multi-species approach will resolve conflicting accounts of trophic response to environmental change. As part of this project, the fellow will partner with the University of Rhode Island's Inner Space Center (URI-ISC) to develop short educational videos and interactive programming related to ocean science and project activities. Using the URI-ISC's unique telepresence capacity, outreach products and programs will be used to engage the public and next generation of scientists across multiple platforms (e.g., social media, K-12 classrooms). This project will also support diversity in research engagement and training by making use of URI-sponsored programs that broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM.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.