NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology

该行动资助了美国国家科学基金会2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学中代表性不足群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。在春季迁徙期间，数百只候鸟在极端的能量需求和时间限制下到达中途停留点，而它们遇到的候鸟正在准备繁殖。虽然在很大程度上未知，但这些景观中留鸟和候鸟之间的相互作用可能是普遍而激烈的。在不熟悉的环境中，居民可以为候鸟提供关于栖息地质量的重要社会信息，或者竞争性地将候鸟排除在加油地点之外。此外，气候变化导致了物种迁移和繁殖时间的特定变化，潜在地创造了新的群落组合，并改变了中途停留期间移民-居民的相互作用。该研究员提出的研究将是第一批调查中途停留期间移民-居民相互作用的研究，并将大大促进我们对以下方面的理解：(1)移民生态学和气候变化生物学，这些领域往往侧重于物种和种群，而不是社区层面的问题；(2)鸟类生理学，通常将迁徙和繁殖视为两个不同的阶段，忽视了它们的重叠如何显著影响行为和物种相互作用；(3)群落生态学，其核心理论是竞争和物种共存，通常不扩展到如此短时间尺度的组成变化。该研究员旨在通过为阿巴拉契亚农村社区的生物学本科生、研究生和博士后开发一个近同伴指导计划，扩大STEM的参与。利用一个长期迁徙监测带带站60年的数据，研究员将比较历史和当前的中途停留群落组成和物种社会网络，以测试迁徙物候的物种特异性变化是否改变了群落组合和迁徙者与居民的相互作用。在实地，研究员将使用驻地歌曲的回放来测试社会信息的作用或驻地和外来移徙者之间的竞争，以及物种相互作用在多大程度上取决于移徙者的精力和生殖条件。该项目还将利用长期数据来评估居住空间的使用、身体状况和社会网络联系在移民大量期间是否会发生变化。该研究员将接受一系列研究技术的培训，获得指导经验，并扩大她的专业网络。近同伴指导计划将帮助参与者获得学术技能、指导经验、同伴社区，并更深入地了解参与STEM的障碍。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. During spring migration, hundreds of individuals of migrating birds arrive at stopover sites under extreme energetic demands and time constraints, while the residents they encounter are preparing to breed. Though largely unknown, the interactions between resident and migrating birds in these landscapes are likely common and intense. Residents could provide crucial social information about habitat quality to migrating birds in unfamiliar landscapes or competitively exclude migrants from refueling sites. Furthermore, climate change has induced species-specific changes in the timing of migration and reproduction, potentially creating novel community assemblages and transforming migrant-resident interactions during stopover. The Fellow’s proposed studies will be among the first to investigate migrant-resident interactions during stopover and will significantly advance our understanding of (1) migration ecology and climate change biology, fields that have tended to focus on species- and population-, rather than community-, level questions; (2) avian physiology, which typically treats migration and breeding as two distinct phases, overlooking how their overlap may significantly affect behavior and species interactions; and (3) community ecology with its central theories of competition and species coexistence that are not usually extended to compositional changes at such short time scales. The Fellow aims to broaden participation in STEM through the development of a near-peer mentoring program for biology undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs in a rural Appalachian community. Using 60 years of data from a long-term migration monitoring banding station, the Fellow will compare historical and current stopover community compositions and species social networks to test whether species-specific changes in migration phenology have altered community assemblages and migrant-resident interactions. In the field, the Fellow will use playback of resident songs to test for the role of social information or competition between residents and incoming migrants, and the extent to which species interactions depend on migrant energetic and reproductive condition. The project will also leverage long-term banding data to assess whether resident space use, body condition, and social network associations change during periods of high migrant abundance. The Fellow will receive training in a range of research techniques, gain mentoring experience, and expand her professional network. The near-peer mentoring program will help participants gain academic skills, mentoring experience, a community of peers, and a deeper understanding of barriers to participation in STEM.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.