BoCP-Implementation: Eco-evolutionary dynamics of rewilding: Real-time genetic monitoring of large-mammal community reassembly

大型野生动物在生态和经济上都很重要，但它们的数量正在减少，许多物种面临灭绝的威胁。越来越多的倡议试图通过恢复野生动物数量来扭转这种趋势，但指导这些努力的科学基础很薄弱。要理解野生动物数量增加（或减少）的方式和原因，一个关键障碍是难以衡量单个动物的生存和繁殖。这项研究的两个主要目的是测试使用从粪便样本中非侵入性收集的DNA来监测野生动物种群的新方法，以及应用这些方法来了解莫桑比克戈龙戈萨国家公园的野生动物恢复过程。这个项目的重点是戈龙戈萨，因为它是世界上第一个大规模野生动物恢复的例子。在一场漫长的内战中，公园里的大型哺乳动物几乎灭绝，但大多数物种现在正在迅速恢复。这为了解整个动物群落是如何从零开始重组创造了独特的机会。这项研究还有一系列更广泛的好处。首先，在这个项目中设计和验证的技术将适用于世界其他地方的基础研究、野生动物监测和环境管理。其次，从研究中获得的知识将直接应用于保护濒临灭绝的物种。第三，该项目将在莫桑比克建立尖端基因组分析的能力，莫桑比克目前还没有这样的设施。第四，一群来自美国的早期职业科学家将接受该项目的培训。研究结果将以非专业用语向广大读者传播，加深公众对戈龙戈萨充满希望的环境恢复故事的了解。该项目利用快速发展的基因组学能力来解决生态学和进化生物学的一个基本挑战：测量繁殖成功及其表型、人口统计学和环境相关因素的能力。通过对粪便样本中的环境DNA进行测序，研究人员将尝试构建谱系，并使用基因组标记重新捕获方法来估计种群规模和关键的人口统计学参数，如出生率和死亡率。将对来自相同粪便样本的DNA进行测序，以评估饮食组成、肠道微生物群和胃肠道寄生虫。基于这些数据，研究小组将回答一系列关于恢复中的大型哺乳动物群落的生态和进化动态的问题，包括：作为个体行为的函数，顶级捕食者的消失和随后的恢复如何影响猎物的适应性？一个正在恢复的社区是趋向于它的历史状态，还是遵循另一种轨迹？在重新引入的小种群中，行为异常是随着种群的增长而持续存在还是消失？一个崩溃的食物网是如何重组的，这能告诉我们什么维持生物多样性的机制？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。

Large wild animals are ecologically and economically important, but their populations are shrinking, and many species are threatened with extinction. A growing number of initiatives seek to reverse these trends by restoring wildlife populations, but the scientific foundation for guiding these efforts is weak. One key obstacle to understanding how and why wildlife populations increase in abundance (or not) is the difficulty of measuring the survival and reproduction of individual animals. The two main aims of this research are to test new methods for monitoring wildlife populations using DNA collected non-invasively from fecal samples, and to apply these methods to understand the process of wildlife recovery in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. This project focuses on Gorongosa because it is the world’s premiere example of large-scale wildlife restoration. The park’s large mammals were nearly eliminated during a long civil war, but most species are now rapidly recovering. This creates unique opportunities to understand how a whole community of animals reassembles from scratch. The research also has a range of broader benefits. First, the techniques devised and validated during this project will be applicable for basic research, wildlife monitoring, and environmental management elsewhere throughout the world. Second, knowledge gained from the research will be directly applied to conserve species that are at risk of extinction. Third, the project will build capacity for cutting-edge genomic analyses in Mozambique, where no such facilities currently exist. Fourth, a diverse group of early-career scientists based in the United States will be trained on the project. Results of the research will be communicated in non-specialist terms to a broad audience, deepening public understanding of Gorongosa’s hopeful story of environmental recovery.This project draws on rapidly advancing genomic capabilities to address a fundamental challenge at the interface of ecology and evolutionary biology: the ability to measure reproductive success and its phenotypic, demographic, and environmental correlates. By sequencing environmental DNA in fecal samples, the investigators will attempt to construct pedigrees and use genomic mark-recapture methods to estimate population sizes and key demographic parameters such as birth and death rates. DNA from the same fecal samples will be sequenced to assess diet composition, gut microbiomes, and gastrointestinal parasites. Based on these data, the research team will answer a suite of questions about the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of a recovering large-mammal community, including: How does the loss and subsequent recovery of top predators affect prey fitness as a function of individual behavior? Does a recovering community tend towards its historical state, or instead follow alternative trajectories? Do behavioral anomalies in small, reintroduced populations persist or dissipate as the population grows? How does a collapsed food web reassemble, and what can this tell us about the mechanisms by which biodiversity is maintained?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.