RAPID: Relative impacts of density- and trait-mediated effects on a top predator: how has the Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected Brown Pelican population biology?

该项目利用英国石油公司墨西哥湾深水地平线漏油事件产生的环境干扰，评估密度与性状中介效应在调节棕色鹈鹕种群方面的相对重要性。调查人员将结合泄漏后和泄漏前的数据，量化不同水平的石油暴露对人口密度和生态相关特征的影响，以及不同暴露情景对人口水平的影响。通过详细分析觅食行为等特征与种群密度如何结合来影响顶级捕食者的动态，这项研究将进一步加深我们对调节种群动态的生态因素以及主要人为干扰的长期非致命性影响的理解。这种棕色鹈鹕在20世纪60年代从路易斯安那州完全灭绝，S直到最近才从濒危物种名单中删除。从那时起，它已经成为墨西哥湾生态系统弹性的重要文化象征。该项目将提高公众对暴露在环境污染物中可能如何影响受石油泄漏影响的这种和其他殖民地筑巢海鸟的认识，结果将使保护从业者和野生生物学家了解对这些种群的有效管理。拟议的研究还将为一名本科生和一名女性博士后提供培训。

This project uses the environmental disturbance generated by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to assess the relative importance of density vs. trait-mediated effects in regulating populations of the brown pelican. The investigators will combine post- and pre-spill data to quantify the effects of different levels of oil exposure on population density and ecologically relevant traits, and on the population-level consequences of different exposure scenarios. By providing a detailed analysis of how traits such as foraging behavior combine with population density to influence the dynamics of a top predator, the study will further our understanding of the ecological factors that regulate population dynamics and the long-term, non-lethal effects of major anthropogenic disturbances. The brown pelican was completely extirpated from Louisiana in the 1960's and only recently removed from the Endangered Species list. Since then, it has become a culturally important symbol of ecosystem resilience in the Gulf of Mexico. The project will raise public awareness about how exposure to environmental contaminants may affect this and other colonial nesting seabirds affected by the oil spills, and results will inform conservation practitioners and wildlife biologists about effective management of these populations. The proposed research will also provide training to one undergraduate student and one female post-doctoral fellow.