OPUS: Lifetime strategies of wild bottlenose dolphins based on 40 years of research

尽管公众和科学界对它们庞大的大脑、复杂的交流系统和社交能力有着相当大的兴趣，但野生海豚和鲸鱼的详细生活仍然几乎不为人知。由于鲸目动物寿命很长，很难研究，因此还没有发表过关于任何野生海豚或鲸鱼物种从出生到死亡的综合研究。OPUS奖将有助于改变这一点。总部设在西澳大利亚州的"鱼翅湾瓶鼻海豚项目"是对世界上任何野生海豚或鲸鱼进行的最大规模的综合研究，包括1750多只海豚从出生到死亡的行为、人口统计、生态、遗传和生理数据。一组研究人员研究了社会行为，社会纽带，网络和结构，亲属关系，工具使用，觅食生态学，终身生殖成功，衰老，疾病传播，人类影响以及对极端气候事件的反应。虽然有几十个长期的研究野生鲸类动物（跨越10年以上），没有一个有这种水平的细节，对个别动物的生活。OPUS项目有两大目标：（1）完成3本书（3个不同的观众：学者，公众，儿童），综合40年（1984 - 2023）野生短吻海豚的纵向研究;（2）向公众和来自不同领域的科学家提供这些数据，从而加速我们的知识和提高我们保护野生动物物种的能力。这些书将为不同的读者综合40年的研究，但在每一种情况下，提供深入了解海豚在个体和种群水平上的生活。这些材料将涵盖每个生命阶段（婴儿期、少年期、成年早期和晚期）的挑战、工具使用和社交网络等重要主题，以及海豚面临的主要威胁（例如，流行病、渔具缠绕、食物来源崩溃、污染和极端气候事件）。此外，OPUS将支持图像、行为、人口统计、空间和遗传数据的整合，以便来自多个学科的科学家可以访问这些数据集。很少有任何野生动物物种的纵向数据库是如此全面，具有高维复杂性和方法论的严谨性。研究人员将最终确定关系数据库（整合所有档案和当前数据），并创建一个详细的指南，以方便下一代学者访问。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Despite considerable public and scientific interest in their large brains, complex communication systems and sociability, the detailed lives of wild dolphins and whales remain virtually unknown. Because cetaceans are so long-lived and difficult to study, no synthetic study on the lives of any wild dolphin or whale species from birth to death has been published. The OPUS award will help change that. The Shark Bay Bottlenose Dolphin Project, based in Western Australia, is the largest comprehensive study of any wild dolphin or whale in the world, including behavioral, demographic, ecological, genetic and physiological data on over 1750 dolphins from birth to death. A team of researchers has examined social behavior, social bonds, networks and structure, kinship, tool-use, foraging ecology, lifetime reproductive success, senescence, disease transmission, human impacts, and responses to extreme climate events. Although there are dozens of long-term studies of wild cetaceans (spanning 10+ years), none have this level of detail about the lives of individual animals. The OPUS project has two major goals: (1) Complete 3 books (for 3 distinct audiences: scholars, the public, children) that synthesize 40 years (1984-2023) of longitudinal study on wild bottlenose dolphins; and (2) Make these data available to the public and scientists from diverse fields, thus accelerating our knowledge and advancing our ability to protect wildlife species in general.The books will synthesize 40 years of research for distinct audiences, but will, in each case, provide insight into the lives of dolphins at the individual and population level. The material will cover the challenges of each life stage (infancy, juvenile period, early and late adulthood), significant topics like tool use and social networks, and the major threats to dolphins (e.g., epidemics, fishing gear entanglement, collapse of food sources, pollution, and extreme climate events). In addition, the OPUS will support integration of image, behavioral, demographic, spatial, and genetic data so that scientists from multiple disciplines can access these datasets. There are few longitudinal databases for any wildlife species that are this comprehensive, with high dimensional complexity, and methodological rigor. The investigator will finalize the relational database (integration of all archival and current data) and create a detailed guide to facilitate access for the next generation of scholars.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.