International Postdoctoral Fellows Program: Species Assemblages of Leptocephali in the South Pacific

9402394米勒该奖项是根据国际初级研究员和博士后研究员计划颁发的，该计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外公认的卓越研究中心进行为期3至12个月的研究。该项目的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并提供了使用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件的机会。该奖项将支持迈克尔·J·米勒博士为期12个月的博士后研究访问，与新西兰惠灵顿维多利亚大学的彼得·H·J·卡塞尔博士合作，研究南太平洋的细头鱼物种组合。他们研究的目的，是为了了解鳗鱼的幼体--细头鳗的分布生态和动物地理学。这将有助于更好地了解成年海鳗的繁殖生态、迁徙和招募机制。合作的重点将是分析在南太平洋进行的一系列航行中收集的小头鱼渔获量数据。他们将集中分析物种组合结构和与该区域的主要当前系统和许多岛屿和环礁有关的个体生活史。进一步的研究可能会发现，长寿的小头鱼可以作为指示物种，研究各种时间尺度上的循环模式，并可能提供有关全球气候变化造成的生态破坏或人类对海洋群落的直接影响的有价值的信息。***

9402394 Miller This award is under the International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research abroad at research centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Michael J. Miller to work with Dr. Peter H. J. Castle at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand on species assemblages of leptocephali in the South Pacific Ocean. The purpose of their research, is to learn about the distributional ecology and zoogeography of leptocephali, the larval form of eels. This will lead to better understanding of the reproductive ecology, migration and recruitment mechanisms of adult marine eels. The focus of the collaboration will be the analysis of catch data of leptocephali collected during a series of cruises made in the south Pacific. They will concentrate on analysis of species assemblage structure and individual life histories in relation to major current systems and the many islands and atolls in the region. Further research may find that long-lived leptocephali can be used as indicator species to examine patterns of circulation on a variety of time scales and may provide valuable information about ecological disruptions caused by global climate change or direct human impacts on marine communities. ***