IRES Track 1: The long-term impacts of extreme climate events on the behavioral ecology, fitness and population viability in wild bottlenose dolphins, Australia

这个学生国际研究经验项目每年将支持至少三名美国本科生和两名美国研究生（总共15名学生）与澳大利亚的研究人员合作，调查极端海洋热浪对印度太平洋宽吻海豚（Tursiops aduncus）种群的长期影响，该种群自1984年以来一直在研究中。学生们将在西澳大利亚的鲨鱼湾（联合国教科文组织世界遗产，根据气候变化脆弱性指数，脆弱性等级最高）进行实地考察，然后在阳光海岸大学（澳大利亚昆士兰州）进行湿实验室工作。学生将使用行为和基因数据回答有关海豚种群的三个问题：1)当它们的栖息地被破坏时，个体海豚的行为如何改变？2)个体的社会环境和觅食策略如何影响其应对环境变化的能力？3)栖息地破碎化如何影响整个种群的遗传和社会连通性？通过解决这些研究课题，学生将获得计算、实地和湿实验室技能，以及与当地利益相关者和政府研究人员合作的野生动物管理方面的政策技能和广泛的社会文化和生物学观点。在这个项目中，学生将获得一个独特的机会来研究野外基因型与环境的相互作用，并将工具带回美国，应用于当地的保护问题和野生动物管理。在这个项目中，学生将有一个独特的机会来研究自1984年以来野生海豚基因型与环境的相互作用，以及它们对全球生物多样性热点地区极端气候事件的反应。2011年，有记录以来最极端的海洋热浪摧毁了鲨鱼湾的生态系统，导致基础海草覆盖率减少90%，当地渔业崩溃，包括宽吻海豚在内的海洋巨型动物的丰度和分布发生了重大变化。鲨鱼湾海豚表现出多样化的行为，包括使用工具，多种觅食策略，高度分化的社会关系，以及独特的社会和生态表型。这种行为异质性使我们能够研究这些特征在暴露于极端气候事件前后的十年中的适应价值。学生主导的研究将调查对海豚种群的广泛影响，重点关注三个领域的调查，包括精细尺度的种群结构，个体社会和觅食行为，以及热浪后繁殖成功的个体差异。我们的37年以上的行为、生态、遗传和人口数据的长期数据库将允许学生分析基线种群动态，参数化模拟，并提出假设。接下来，在现场，本科生和研究生将共同收集数据，继续对环境干扰的行为和健康后果进行十多年的评估。参与者将由澳大利亚专家合作人员进行遗传数据分析和基因型-环境相互作用研究方面的培训。学生将分析种群变化对近亲繁殖潜力、资源竞争、社会网络和最终适应度后果的影响。动物行为和景观遗传学的整合将通过利用快速环境变化中的自然实验来推进我们对生态和进化原理的理解。该项目为来自华盛顿大都会地区的不同学生提供国际研究经验，以应对我们目前面临的一些最大的环境挑战。通过对比面对不同环境条件，由不同政府管理，具有不同地区复杂性的本地系统与国际系统，学生将获得对紧迫的保护问题的广泛见解。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 International Research Experience for Students program will support at least three U.S. undergraduate and two U.S. graduate students each year (15 students in total) to collaborate with researchers in Australia to investigate the long-term impacts of an extreme marine heat wave on a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that has been studied since 1984. Students will conduct field work in Shark Bay, Western Australia (a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the highest vulnerability rating according to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index), and then wet-lab work at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Queensland, Australia). Students will use behavioral and genetic data to answer three questions regarding the dolphin population: 1) how does individual dolphin behavior change when their habitat is disrupted? 2) how does the individual’s social environment and foraging strategies affect their ability to respond to environmental change? and 3) how does habitat fragmentation affect genetic and social connectivity throughout the population? Students will gain computational, field and wet-lab skills from addressing these research topics, as well as policy skills and broad socio-cultural and biological perspectives on wildlife management from their collaborations with local stakeholders and government researchers. In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions in the wild, and bring back tools to apply to local conservation issues and wildlife management in the US.In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions among wild dolphins, studied since 1984, and their responses to an extreme climatic event in a global biodiversity hotspot. In 2011, the most extreme marine heat wave on record devastated the Shark Bay ecosystem, leading to a 90% reduction in foundational seagrass coverage, the collapse of local fisheries, and significant changes to the abundance and distribution of marine megafauna, including bottlenose dolphins. Shark Bay dolphins exhibit a diverse behavioral repertoire including tool use, multiple foraging tactics, highly differentiated social bonds, and distinct social and ecological phenotypes. This behavioral heterogeneity allows us to investigate the adaptive value of such traits in the decade before and after exposure to an extreme climate event. Student-led research will investigate the widespread impacts on the dolphin population, focusing on three areas of inquiry including fine-scale population structure, individual social and foraging behavior, and individual variation in reproductive success after the heatwave. Our long-term 37+ year database of behavioral, ecological, genetic, and demographic data will allow students to analyze baseline population dynamics, parameterize simulations, and develop hypotheses. Next, while in the field, undergraduate and graduate students will work together to collect data continuing a decade-plus assessment of the behavioral and fitness consequences of environmental disturbance. Participants will be trained by expert Australian collaborators in genetic data analysis and the study of genotype-environment interactions. Students will analyze population changes in the context of their impact on inbreeding potential, resource competition, social networks, and ultimate fitness consequences. The proposed integration of animal behavior and landscape genetics will advance our understanding of ecological and evolutionary principles by leveraging a natural experiment in rapid environmental change. This program affords a diverse group of students from the DC-metro area international research experience in meeting some of the biggest environmental challenges we currently face. By contrasting local systems with international systems facing different environmental conditions, managed by different governments, with distinct regional complexity, students will gain extensive insight into pressing conservation problems.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.