Move, Adapt, or Change: Examining the Adaptive Capacity of a Southern Ocean Apex Predator, the Leopard Seal

斑海豹（Hydrurga leptonyx）是快速变化的南大洋中一种神秘的顶级捕食者。作为顶级掠食者，海豹在生态系统功能中发挥着不成比例的重要作用，并作为可以跟踪栖息地变化的哨兵物种。海豹如何应对变暖的环境取决于它们的适应能力，即物种科普环境变化的能力。然而，豹海豹是地球上研究最少的顶级掠食者之一，阻碍了我们预测该物种如何应对极地环境变化的能力。调查南极生物群在不断变化的系统中的适应性符合NSF在南极和南大洋研究投资的战略愿景。这项研究，这是与教育和推广活动紧密结合，将增加干和南极科学的多样性，通过招募学生从历史上代表性不足的群体在干，并提供培训，指导，和教育机会，在新兴的西班牙裔服务机构和历史上黑人学院和大学校园。该项目将通过博物馆合作，创建信息视频和描绘研究的原创艺术品来改善STEM教育和科学素养。 该提案支持极地研究中的数据和样本再利用，以及科学数据的长期再利用，从而最大限度地提高NSF对以前实地研究的投资，降低运营成本。研究人员将通过量化海豹的移动能力（扩散能力）、适应能力（遗传多样性）和变化能力（可塑性）来研究海豹对南大洋变暖的适应能力。这项研究的第一个目标是通过评估海豹的分布和运动模式来确定它们的扩散能力。目标2将通过分析遗传变异性和种群结构来量化遗传多样性，目标3将通过评估其生态位和生理反应的变化来研究表型可塑性。国际多学科团队将分析现有数据（例如，照片、人口普查数据、生活史数据、组织样本、身体形态测量学）。此外，陆地和船舶实地工作将从南大洋未抽样区域产生可比数据。该研究项目将分析这些历史和当代数据集，以评估海豹对快速变暖的南大洋的适应能力。这项研究意义重大，因为豹海豹的分布、遗传多样性和生态生理学的变化可以显著地重建极地和亚极地群落。此外，这项研究将扩大对豹海豹生态作用的了解，可能将该物种描述为整个南半球灵活的极地和亚极地捕食者。这项研究的结果将适用于三大洲基于生态系统的管理决策，包括海洋保护区的设计。这项研究将突出决定物种适应能力的内在特征，并展示极地和亚极地生态系统之间的动态联系。该奖项反映了NSF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。

The leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx) is an enigmatic apex predator in the rapidly changing Southern Ocean. As top predators, leopard seals play a disproportionately large role in ecosystem functioning and act as sentinel species that can track habitat changes. How leopard seals respond to a warming environment depends on their adaptive capacity, that is a species’ ability to cope with environmental change. However, leopard seals are one of the least studied apex predators on Earth, hindering our ability to predict how the species is responding to polar environmental changes. Investigating the adaptability of Antarctic biota in a changing system aligns with NSF’s Strategic Vision for Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research. This research, which is tightly integrated with educational and outreach activities, will increase diversity in STEM and Antarctic science by recruiting students from historically underrepresented groups in STEM and providing training, mentoring, and educational opportunities at an emerging Hispanic Serving Institution and a Historically Black Colleges and Universities campus. This project will improve STEM education and science literacy via museum collaborations, creation of informational videos and original artwork depicting the research. The proposal supports data and sample reuse in polar research and long-term reuse of scientific data, thereby maximizing NSF’s investment in previous field research and reducing operational costs. The researchers will investigate leopard seals adaptive capacity to the warming Southern Ocean by quantifying their ability to move (dispersal ability), adapt (genetic diversity), and change (plasticity). Aim 1 of the research will determine leopard seals’ dispersal ability by assessing their distribution and movement patterns. Aim 2 will quantify genetic diversity by analyzing genetic variability and population structure and Aim 3 will examine phenotypic plasticity by evaluating changes in their ecological niche and physiological responses. The international, multidisciplinary team will analyze existing data (e.g., photographs, census data, life history data, tissue samples, body morphometrics) collected from leopard seals across the Southern Ocean over the last decade. Additionally, land- and ship-based field efforts will generate comparable data from unsampled regions in the Southern Ocean. The research project will analyze these historical and contemporary datasets to evaluate the adaptive capacity of leopard seals against the rapidly warming Southern Ocean. This research is significant because changes in the distribution, genetic diversity, and ecophysiology of leopard seals can dramatically restructure polar and subpolar communities. Further, the research will expand understanding of leopard seals’ ecological role, likely characterizing the species as flexible polar and subpolar predators throughout the Southern Hemisphere. The findings of this research will be relevant for use in ecosystem-based management decisions—including the design of Marine Protected Areas— across three continents. This study will highlight intrinsic traits that determine species’ adaptive capacity, as well as showcase the dynamic links between polar and subpolar ecosystems.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.