NSF PRFB FY 2023: How does urban environmental heterogeneity and societal inequity shape phenotypic traits in wildlife?

这一行动为NSF 2023财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。这项研究项目将解决城市生活条件的变化，如污染和绿地可获得性，如何影响不同社区的野生动物的行为和生理。在这样做的过程中，这个项目的结果将说明我们社会中的不平等如何影响城市中其他非人类有机体的进化和总体福祉。该研究员将与不平等获得STEM资源的社会经济地位的当地社区合作进行研究。因此，该项目不仅将提供一个直接扩大STEM参与的机会，还将使该研究员成为公平环境政策的倡导者，这些政策将使城市社区的人和动物都受益。此外，该研究员将在博物馆和服务不足的学校提供K-12教育推广，并利用当地动物行为的知识以人道的方式缓解居民与野生动物之间的冲突。为了了解城市环境条件的异质性如何影响野生动物，这项研究将评估和比较旧金山湾区高收入和低收入社区以及周围非城市地区的浣熊(Procyon Lotor)的行为和生理。这位研究员将从人道地捕捉附近的浣熊开始，以便用微芯片标记每个人，并安全地收集血液和头发样本，这将为了解浣熊的生理(例如，压力)和跨社区的遗传关联提供见解。该研究员将接受如何处理每个生物样本并进行相关的生理和遗传分析的培训。在所有浣熊都被处理和释放后，这位研究员将与当地机构和社区成员合作，使用跟踪摄像头对浣熊进行行为观察，并使用谜题和其他测试设备评估它们的认知能力。总而言之，这些信息将使研究员能够将浣熊的行为和表现与潜在的认知和生理机制联系起来，这些机制可能会受到城市环境条件的影响。这位研究员还将评估浣熊的行为如何从后代的父母那里遗传，以及与当地资源和危险相关的知识是否可以在每个社区的浣熊之间传播。这一奖项反映了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 2023, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment, and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. This research project will address how variation in urban living conditions, such as pollution and green space availability, affect the behavior and physiology of wildlife across different neighborhoods. In doing so, the results of this project will illustrate how inequities within our society affect the evolution and general wellbeing of other nonhuman organisms in cities. The fellow will conduct research in collaboration with local communities spanning socioeconomic statuses with unequal access to STEM resources. Thus, this project will not only provide an opportunity to directly broaden participation in STEM, but also allow the fellow to serve as an advocate for equitable environmental policies that will benefit both people and animals across urban neighborhoods. In addition, the fellow will provide K-12 educational outreach at museums and underserved schools, and use knowledge of local animal behavior to humanely mitigate conflict between residents and wildlife.To understand how heterogeneity in urban environmental conditions affects wildlife, this research will evaluate and compare the behavior and physiology of raccoons (Procyon lotor) across high and low income neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as in the surrounding nonurban areas. The fellow will begin by humanely capturing raccoons across neighborhoods in order to mark each individual with a microchip and safely collect blood and hair samples, which will provide insights on raccoon physiology (e.g., stress) and genetic relatedness across neighborhoods. The fellow will receive training on how to process each biological sample and conduct the associated physiological and genetic analyses. After all raccoons have been processed and released, the fellow will work in partnership with local agencies and community members to make behavioral observations of raccoons using trail cameras and evaluate their cognitive abilities using puzzles and other testing apparatuses. Together, this information will enable the fellow to link raccoon behavior and performance across tests to underlying cognitive and physiological mechanisms that may be influenced by urban environmental conditions. The fellow will also evaluate how raccoon behavior may be inherited from parents of offspring, and whether knowledge related to local resources and dangers could be transmitted among raccoons within each neighborhood as well.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.