IRES Track 1: The long-term impacts of extreme climate events on the behavioral ecology, fitness and population viability in wild bottlenose dolphins, Australia

这一面向学生的国际研究体验项目每年将支持至少三名美国本科生和两名美国研究生(总共15名学生)与澳大利亚的研究人员合作，调查极端海洋热浪对自1984年以来一直进行研究的印度洋-太平洋宽吻海豚(Tursiopaduncus)种群的长期影响。学生们将在西澳大利亚的鲨鱼湾(根据气候变化脆弱性指数，这是联合国教科文组织的世界遗产中脆弱性评级最高的遗址)进行实地考察，然后在阳光海岸大学(澳大利亚昆士兰)进行湿法实验室研究。学生将使用行为和遗传数据回答有关海豚种群的三个问题：1)当海豚的栖息地被破坏时，个体的行为会发生什么变化？2)个体的社会环境和觅食策略如何影响它们应对环境变化的能力？3)栖息地碎片化如何影响整个种群的遗传和社会联系？学生将从解决这些研究课题中获得计算、实地和湿实验室技能，以及从与当地利益相关者和政府研究人员的合作中获得关于野生动物管理的政策技能和广泛的社会文化和生物学视角。在这个项目中，学生们将有一个独特的机会研究野外的基因-环境相互作用，并带回应用于美国当地保护问题和野生动物管理的工具。在这个项目中，学生将获得一个独特的机会，研究自1984年以来研究的野生海豚之间的基因-环境相互作用，以及它们对全球生物多样性热点地区极端气候事件的反应。2011年，有记录以来最极端的海洋热浪摧毁了鲨鱼湾生态系统，导致基本海草覆盖率下降90%，当地渔业崩溃，包括宽吻海豚在内的海洋大型动物的数量和分布发生重大变化。鲨鱼湾海豚表现出不同的行为，包括工具的使用，多种觅食策略，高度分化的社会纽带，以及独特的社会和生态表型。这种行为异质性使我们能够调查这些特征在暴露于极端气候事件之前和之后的十年中的适应价值。学生主导的研究将调查热浪对海豚种群的广泛影响，重点研究三个领域，包括细微规模的种群结构，个体的社交和觅食行为，以及热浪过后繁殖成功的个体差异。我们37年以上的行为、生态、遗传和人口统计数据的长期数据库将使学生能够分析基线种群动态，将模拟参数化，并制定假设。接下来，在现场，本科生和研究生将共同收集数据，继续对环境干扰对行为和健康造成的后果进行十多年的评估。参与者将接受澳大利亚专家合作者在遗传数据分析和基因-环境相互作用研究方面的培训。学生将分析人口变化对近亲繁殖潜力、资源竞争、社会网络和最终健康后果的影响。动物行为和景观遗传学的拟议整合将通过利用快速环境变化中的自然实验来促进我们对生态和进化原理的理解。该项目为来自DC-Metro地区的不同群体的学生提供了应对我们目前面临的一些最大环境挑战的国际研究经验。通过将当地系统与国际系统进行对比，这些系统面临不同的环境条件，由不同的政府管理，具有不同的地区复杂性，学生将获得广泛的洞察力，了解紧迫的保护问题。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This International Research Experience for Students program will support at least three U.S. undergraduate and two U.S. graduate students each year (15 students in total) to collaborate with researchers in Australia to investigate the long-term impacts of an extreme marine heat wave on a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that has been studied since 1984. Students will conduct field work in Shark Bay, Western Australia (a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the highest vulnerability rating according to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index), and then wet-lab work at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Queensland, Australia). Students will use behavioral and genetic data to answer three questions regarding the dolphin population: 1) how does individual dolphin behavior change when their habitat is disrupted? 2) how does the individual’s social environment and foraging strategies affect their ability to respond to environmental change? and 3) how does habitat fragmentation affect genetic and social connectivity throughout the population? Students will gain computational, field and wet-lab skills from addressing these research topics, as well as policy skills and broad socio-cultural and biological perspectives on wildlife management from their collaborations with local stakeholders and government researchers. In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions in the wild, and bring back tools to apply to local conservation issues and wildlife management in the US.In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions among wild dolphins, studied since 1984, and their responses to an extreme climatic event in a global biodiversity hotspot. In 2011, the most extreme marine heat wave on record devastated the Shark Bay ecosystem, leading to a 90% reduction in foundational seagrass coverage, the collapse of local fisheries, and significant changes to the abundance and distribution of marine megafauna, including bottlenose dolphins. Shark Bay dolphins exhibit a diverse behavioral repertoire including tool use, multiple foraging tactics, highly differentiated social bonds, and distinct social and ecological phenotypes. This behavioral heterogeneity allows us to investigate the adaptive value of such traits in the decade before and after exposure to an extreme climate event. Student-led research will investigate the widespread impacts on the dolphin population, focusing on three areas of inquiry including fine-scale population structure, individual social and foraging behavior, and individual variation in reproductive success after the heatwave. Our long-term 37+ year database of behavioral, ecological, genetic, and demographic data will allow students to analyze baseline population dynamics, parameterize simulations, and develop hypotheses. Next, while in the field, undergraduate and graduate students will work together to collect data continuing a decade-plus assessment of the behavioral and fitness consequences of environmental disturbance. Participants will be trained by expert Australian collaborators in genetic data analysis and the study of genotype-environment interactions. Students will analyze population changes in the context of their impact on inbreeding potential, resource competition, social networks, and ultimate fitness consequences. The proposed integration of animal behavior and landscape genetics will advance our understanding of ecological and evolutionary principles by leveraging a natural experiment in rapid environmental change. This program affords a diverse group of students from the DC-metro area international research experience in meeting some of the biggest environmental challenges we currently face. By contrasting local systems with international systems facing different environmental conditions, managed by different governments, with distinct regional complexity, students will gain extensive insight into pressing conservation problems.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.