Collaborative Research: RUI: MULTILEVEL EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON WILDLIFE HEALTH: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

世界范围内的城市地区正在扩大，导致野生动物栖息地的严重丧失。栖息地的这种变化究竟是如何导致野生动物种群减少的，目前还没有完全弄清楚。相关的机制很难研究，因为受到最负面影响的物种根本不会出现在城市栖息地。这个项目的重点是一个物种，西部鹿鼠，这是发现在城市和农村的栖息地。研究人员将收集栖息地的数据，如食物供应和噪音，以及老鼠的健康，如免疫功能和压力，沿着从城市林地到斯波坎，华盛顿及其周边地区几乎原始森林的梯度。数据将用于确定哪些因素对城市地区的野生动物健康影响最大。由于野生动物可以携带传染给人类的疾病，有关城市物种健康的信息与人类健康直接相关。来自三个机构的许多本科生将参与这项研究，从而获得重要的跨学科培训。此外，还将在三所大学的课程中开展两项基于该项目的课堂研究活动，为数百名学生提供额外的研究经验。选择索诺里鼠作为模式生物是因为它在城市化梯度中栖息在各种环境中，从而有助于对城市化的直接和间接影响进行自然比较分析。大多数其他研究只关注城市化的一个或几个变量，所产生的模型过于简单，因为涉及许多变量，而且经常共同变化。这项研究使用了一套城市化变量，这些变量被预测会影响动物的健康，并成为动物健康的指标。相应地，“健康”将用压力（急性和慢性）、身体状况（例如，寄生虫感染，生殖状态），免疫功能（例如，中性粒细胞、B细胞、辅助T细胞的定量）和肠道微生物组分析。利用位于沿着城市化梯度的研究地点，研究人员将：1）量化城市化及其对栖息地特征的影响，2）评估鹿鼠健康的多个指标，3）整合栖息地和生物体之间和内部的反应，以调查城市化对鹿鼠健康的多维影响。基于机制的研究结果可用于在城市化侵蚀下保护或修复栖息地的努力，从而实现主动而非被动的保护和恢复方法。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。

Urban areas are growing worldwide, causing significant loss of habitat for wildlife. Exactly how such changes in habitat lead to declines in wildlife populations is not fully understood. The associated mechanisms are hard to study because the species most negatively impacted simply don’t occur in urban habitats. This project focuses on a species, the Western Deer Mouse, that is found in both urban and rural habitats. Researchers will collect data on habitat, such as food availability and noise, and on mouse health, such as immune function and stress, along a gradient from urban woodlots to nearly pristine forests in and around Spokane, Washington. Data will be used to identify which factors most impact wildlife health in urban areas. Because wildlife can carry diseases that are passed to humans, information about the health of urban species has direct relevance to human health. Many undergraduate students from three institutions will be involved in the study, thereby gaining important interdisciplinary training. Additionally, two in-class research activities based on this project will be developed and implemented in courses at the three institutions, giving hundreds of additional students experience in research.Peromyscus sonoriensis was selected as a model organism because it inhabits a wide diversity of environments across an urbanization gradient, thus facilitating natural comparative analyses of direct and indirect impacts of urbanization. Most other studies focus on only one or a few variables of urbanization and the models that result are simplistic, as many variables are involved and frequently co-vary. This study uses a suite of urbanization variables that are predicted to affect, and be indicators of, an animal’s health. Correspondingly, “health” will be assessed with a variety of metrics of stress (acute and chronic), body condition (e.g., parasite infection, reproductive status), immune function (e.g., quantification of neutrophils, B cells, helper T cells), and gut microbiome analysis. Using research sites located along an urbanization gradient, researchers will: 1) quantify urbanization and its effects on habitat characteristics, 2) assess multiple metrics of deer mouse health, and 3) integrate responses between and within habitats and organisms to investigate multi-dimensional effects of urbanization on deer mouse health. The mechanism-based findings can be used in efforts to conserve or remediate habitats in the face of encroaching urbanization, enabling a proactive rather than reactive approach to conservation and restoration.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.