CAREER: Environmental Drivers of Life History Variation in Coastal Ecosystems

不同地区和不同时间的资源可利用性差异预计会导致动物种群生活史特征的差异。虽然已经使用实验方法研究了生活史变化，但在自然系统中了解甚少。本研究将探讨现代海岸生态系统中双壳类软体动物卵大小与资源可得性之间的关系。PI将比较现代人口与历史人口，以确定人口对资源可用性变化的反应率。此外，本发明还提供了一种方法，这项研究旨在通过为富兰克林和马歇尔学院代表性不足的少数民族本科生开发一个管道，增加参与地球和海洋科学的学生的多样性，该管道涉及早期参与实地和实验室研究以及涉及墨西哥湾沿岸初中学生和教师的跨学科外展计划。这项研究将涉及连续几年的当代和在墨西哥湾北方，历史上的双壳类种群沿着初级生产梯度与本科生团队。在路易斯安那州沿海，亚拉巴马，和佛罗里达当代人口的软体动物壳的同位素分析将被用来校准现今的初级生产，海面温度和幼虫性状之间的关系。环境条件和生活史之间的当代关系将被用来调查在墨西哥湾北方在过去的千年生活史变化的环境相关性。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联。这项研究将包括在沿海亚拉巴马和路易斯安那州的综合推广计划，从事初中学生和教师重建人类环境的历史，通过视觉艺术和历史透镜提供的贝壳放射性碳年代测定作为计划的研究活动的一部分。研究结果将通过本科生研究人员和PI的会议报告、出版物、公共数据库以及在合作的墨西哥湾沿岸海洋实验室和其他公共场所举办的大学预科生环境艺术品展览来传播。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.