NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Mechanisms and consequences of thermal stress effects on cognitive performance

这一行动资助了NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该研究金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该项目将通过测量两种密切相关的鸣禽的有机体行为和生理反应来解决了解生物体如何应对气温上升的需要。这些鸣禽对高温的耐受能力各不相同，这将使这位研究员能够直接测试这个问题。这项研究将通过洞察不同种类的鸟类如何以及为什么在不断变化的气候中对热的反应不同来促进科学知识。该项目通过采取四级办法使社会受益，以满足发展社区意识的需要，以支持招聘和留住博士后代表人数不足的群体。许多物种正在改变它们的活动范围，以应对气候条件的变化，这些变化正在改变选择压力。行为可以缓冲这些影响，促进生存。当面临新的挑战时，认知特征，如学习，可能对生存特别重要，可能意味着一个物种在一个地区生存和灭绝的区别。然而，关于耐热性的变化如何影响行为表现，特别是认知特征，我们知之甚少。该项目包括一套综合的实验研究，通过实验操纵气温来量化学习对空间觅食任务的影响，以填补这一知识空白。关键的是，该方法使用了跨越两种不同热耐力的鸣鸟的纬度梯度的多个种群的个体，来询问热耐力的变化如何影响热应激下认知表现的变化。总体而言，这项研究的目的是将热应激作为一种生物相关工具，以了解从神经元到个人再到种群和物种的不同尺度上对生物环境的行为反应与潜在生理机制之间的联系。该项目将扩展该研究员研究计划的进化框架，以及她在设计和分析行为分析方面的培训。扩大参与活动的重点是通过组织职业发展研讨会、闪电谈话系列、博士后委员会正规化和博士后外展活动，为年轻一代提供机会看到科学家的多样性，为来自代表不足的群体的博士后建立社区。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 action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. The project will address the need to understand how organisms respond to rising temperatures by measuring the organism’s behavior and physiology in response to temperature in two closely related songbirds. These songbirds vary in their ability to tolerate hot temperatures, which will allow the fellow to directly test this question. This research will advance scientific knowledge by providing insight into how and why different populations of birds vary in their response to heat in a changing climate. The project benefits society by taking a 4-tiered approach to address the need to develop a sense of community to support the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups at the postdoctoral level. Many species are shifting their range in response to changes in climatic conditions that are altering selective pressures. Behavior can buffer these effects and facilitate survival. Cognitive traits, such as learning, can be particularly vital to survival when facing new challenges and could mean the difference between a species persisting and going extinct in an area. However, not much is known about how variation in thermal tolerance affects behavioral performance, particularly of cognitive traits. The project includes a set of integrative, experimental studies to fill this gap in knowledge by experimentally manipulating air temperature to quantify effects of learning on a spatial foraging task. Critically, the approach uses individuals from multiple populations across a latitudinal gradient spanning the shifting range limit of two species of songbird who vary in thermal tolerance, to ask how variation in thermal tolerance affects variation in cognitive performance under thermal stress. Overall, the research aims to use thermal stress as a biologically relevant tool to understand connections between behavioral responses to an organisms' environment and underlying physiological mechanisms over different scales from neurons to individuals to populations and species. The project will expand the evolutionary framework of the fellow’s research program and her training in designing and analyzing behavioral assays. Broadening participation activities focus on building community for postdocs from under-represented groups by organizing career development workshops, a lightning talk series, formalization of postdoctoral committees, and a postdoc run outreach event to provide an opportunity for the younger generation to see diversity in scientists.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.