NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Examining Natural and Anthropogenic Influences on the Physiology, Population Structure, and Trophic Structure of Larval Rockfishes

这一行动为NSF 2019财年生物学博士后研究奖学金-使用生物收藏进行研究-提供资金。该奖学金支持将以创新方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。确定环境因素如何影响鱼苗种群，对于预测成鱼种群结构至关重要，并将加强渔业管理战略。影响早期生命死亡率的主要因素是捕食和饥饿，这受到氧气、营养物质和其他海洋条件的影响，包括与增加碳排放的人类活动有关的变暖和酸化。为了更好地了解影响幼虫生理和捕食者-猎物相互作用的因素，该项目将应用现代生化技术来收集跨越67年的幼鱼。这些标本连同相应的海洋学数据集由加州合作海洋渔业调查方案收集，是世界上最长的独立于渔业的数据集。这项工作将有助于了解未来海洋条件下的“赢家”和“输家”，并为渔业管理者提供关键信息，这些信息可能被用于维持具有商业重要性的渔业种群和保护当地生物多样性。该项目将对之前收集的两个商业上重要的物种进行分析，这两个物种在整个20世纪都经历了戏剧性的下降。利用现代生化技术，将通过免疫组织化学、DNA测序和稳定同位素分析生成三个长期的生理、遗传和同位素数据集。然后，这些数据集将与海洋学数据集配对，并与两个岩鱼种群的崩溃和恢复情况相一致，以确定海洋保护区的实施是否成功。这一分析还将揭示人为碳排放对幼虫生理的影响。福尔马林固定的标本因在免疫组织化学和DNA测序分析中存在问题而臭名昭著。这些技术将在这项工作中得到改进，以建立可应用于世界各地生物收集的方法。最后，该研究员还将通过Squidtoons将该研究项目翻译成网络漫画进行公开传播，最终促进公众对生物学研究和收藏的更好理解和欣赏。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，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. Determining how environmental factors influence larval fish populations is essential to predicting the adult population structure and will enhance fishery management strategies. The primary factors affecting early-life mortality are predation and starvation, which are affected by oxygen, nutrients, and other ocean conditions including warming and acidification linked to human activity that has increased carbon emissions. To better understand factors that affect larval physiology and predator-prey interactions, this project will apply modern biochemical techniques to larval fish collections spanning 67 years. These specimens together with a corresponding oceanographic dataset were collected by the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations program and represent the longest fishery-independent dataset in the world. This work will contribute to understanding the 'winners' and 'losers' in future ocean conditions, and provide fishery managers with crucial information that may be applied to maintain commercially-important fishery stocks and preserve local biodiversity.This project will perform analysis on previously collected larval cowcod (Sebastes levis) and bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis), two commercially important species that have experienced dramatic decline throughout the 20th century. Using modern biochemical techniques, three long-term physiological, genetic, and isotopic datasets will be generated using immunohistochemistry, DNA-sequencing, and stable isotope analysis. These datasets will then be paired with oceanographic datasets and aligned with the collapse and recovery of the two rockfish populations to determine whether the implementation of the Marine Protected Area was successful. This analysis will also reveal the effects of anthropogenic carbon emission on larval physiology. Formalin-fixed specimens are notorious for being problematic for immunohistochemical and DNA-sequencing analysis. These techniques will be refined in this work to establish approaches that could be applied to biological collections around the world. Finally, the fellow will also translate this research project into a webcomic via Squidtoons for public dissemination, ultimately facilitating better public understanding and appreciation of biological research and collections.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.