LTREB: Pace of life and differential migration in changing environments

几千年来，人类一直着迷于许多动物为了寻找食物、繁殖和生存而进行的长途迁徙。近几十年来，科学家们观察到越来越多的动物不再像它们的祖先那样迁徙得那么远。为什么有些人短期内停止迁移，而另一些人继续进行传统的长途迁移？这些变化的行为对迁徙物种的影响是什么？这对人类社会有什么影响？通过对黑雁进行独特的长期研究，研究人员将通过研究气候变化和个体生殖史（迄今为止养育了多少婴儿）对迁移距离的双重影响，以及迁移决定对未来生存和繁殖机会的影响来解决这些问题。然后，研究小组将量化每种类型的迁移行为对黑雁总体数量的贡献。雁通过它们作为太平洋沿岸沿着鳗草的主要食草动物的作用影响沿海经济，太平洋沿岸也是无数鱼类和贝类的繁殖地。如果没有丰富的布兰特来维持健康的鳗草床，以及对影响布兰特丰富度的因素的深入了解，依赖鳗草河口的渔业可能会受到影响。在进行这项研究的同时，该团队将在STEM领域培训高度多样化的学生，包括阿拉斯加原住民学生。该团队还将为K-12学生开发涵盖野生动物采样技术和模型的开放式教育材料。与其他分类群一样，随着气候变暖以及更南部的栖息地被人类破坏，许多布兰特正在短期停止季节性迁徙，并在高纬度地区越冬。但许多个体继续投资于传统的长距离迁移到南半球，随着时间的推移，在brant种群中形成了不同的迁移策略模式。通过利用对阿拉斯加布兰特的长期研究，研究人员将测试环境变化是否允许个体布兰特从广泛的迁移策略中平等选择，或者环境变化是否倾向于特定的迁移策略。（长距离与短距离）与生命史克里思相关（快与慢的生殖投资和寿命），通过终身进化适应性的货币来衡量。建模还将揭示个体迁移策略对布兰特种群生存能力的贡献，以及布兰特种群对他们放牧的生态系统的影响。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，被认为值得支持。

For millennia, humans have been fascinated by the long-distance migrations that many animals undergo to find food, reproduce, and survive. In recent decades, scientists have observed that more and more animals are not migrating as far as their ancestors did. Why is it that some individuals stop their migration short while others continue to adopt traditional, long-distance migrations? What are the consequences of these changing behaviors for migratory species, and how does this impact human societies? Using a unique long-term study of brant geese, the researchers will address these questions by studying the dual influence of climate change and an individual’s reproductive history (how many babies they have reared to date) on migration distance, and the impact of migratory decisions on future chances of survival and reproduction. The team will then quantify the contribution of each type of migration behavior to the overall abundance of brant geese. Brant geese affect coastal economies via their role as primary grazers of eelgrass along the Pacific Coast, the same habitat that serves as the rearing ground for a myriad of fish and shellfish species. Without an abundance of brant to maintain healthy beds of eelgrass, and a solid understanding of the factors affecting brant abundance, the fishing industries that rely on eelgrass estuaries could suffer. While carrying out the study, the team will train a highly diverse group of students, including Alaska Native students, in STEM fields. The team will also develop open educational materials covering wildlife sampling techniques and models for K-12 students.Like other taxa, many brant are stopping their seasonal migration short and wintering at high latitudes as the climate warms and as habitats further south are damaged by humans. But many individuals continue to invest in traditional long-distance migrations to southern latitudes, creating a divergent pattern of migration tactics within brant populations over time. By leveraging a long-term study of brant in Alaska, the researchers will test whether environmental change is allowing individual brant to choose equally from a broad range of migration strategies, or if environmental change is directionally favoring a particular migration strategy (long- vs. short-distance) associated with life-history tempo (fast vs. slow reproductive investment and lifespans), as measured via the currency of lifetime evolutionary fitness. Modeling will also reveal the contributions of individual migration tactics to brant population viability, and the impact of brant populations on the ecosystems they graze.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.