The Paleoecology of Pinnipeds on the Pacific Rim

环太平洋地区鳍足类的古生态学

• 批准号: 0345943
• 负责人: Paul Koch
• 金额: $ 14.75万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-01 至 2007-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0345943&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Paleoecology; Pinnipeds; Pacific; Rim

The Paleoecology of Pinnipeds on the Pacific RimIntellectual Merits - Recent studies have shown that humans, including prehistoric people, play a major role in shaping the ecosystems they inhabit, and that some of the ecosystems we are familiar with today operated differently in the recent past. Historical and paleoecological data provide crucial contextual information for the conservation communities considering future management decisions, especially for species that have witnessed relatively recent population declines. Our overarching goal is to explore how environmental and anthropogenic factors interacted to generate ecological shifts on the northeastern Pacific coast over the past 5000 years. The most complete record of these changes is found in coastal archaeological sites, where the faunas of past terrestrial and marine ecosystems can be studied to investigate paleoecologic shifts. Furthermore, the recognition of major ecological shifts will be important for archaeologists attempting to decipher changes in human demography and resource utilization. In past studies, northern fur seals were studied using isotopic and archaeological data to show that the species has changed its breeding and migratory behavior over the past 1000 years. Fur seal bones were also dated to show that the collapse of local breeding colonies was not synchronous across the Pacific margin. For this study, we will investigate changes in foraging, migratory, weaning, and haul-out behavior in four different pinniped species since the mid-Holocene through construction of time series on isotopic composition, presence/absence, relative abundance, and age/sex distribution. In addition, we will develop two new methods to assess weaning age in pinnipeds. The first will use growth structures in pinniped teeth as proxies for weaning age and maternal investment. The other is a biogeochemical approach that uses changes in the N isotope ratios in bone growth series and tooth dentin. We will focus on four centers of pinniped diversity - the eastern Aleutian Islands, the US-Canadian border, the Oregon coast, and the Channel Islands. This project will include an extensive literature search and compilation of existing faunal information into a database on Holocene pinniped dynamics along the NE Pacific margin.Broader Impacts - This study will show how insights into the ecology of threatened species may be gleaned from archaeological data. This is important for species in relict populations, whose current ecology may be shaped by recent exploitation or environmental change. Three of the four species we will study are presently undergoing rapid population declines, but the causes for these declines are far from clear. This study will provide baseline data on the ecology of these species over deep time, and indicate whether or not they experienced similar declines in the past in relation to anthropogenic or environmental perturbations. We will work with conservation biologists to make our data available to those making management decisions. To this end, in winter 2004 we will co-host a conference, funded by the UC-PACRIM, which will bring together archaeologists, historians, marine mammal ecologists, conservation biologists, and social scientists. Our goal is to evaluate the archaeological and historical record of NE Pacific pinnipeds in the context of the ecology of these species today, and then to develop strategies for integrating this information into decision-making processes of conservation policy makers. A more immediate impact of this project will be the education of graduate and undergraduate students at UCSC. In addition, our prehistoric approach to marine mammal ecology was developed into a module for COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science) in 2002 and 2003. A diverse group of students (grades 8-12) took part in a 4-week course that integrated field, laboratory, and classroom exercises designed to introduce scholarly and motivated young people to science.

在太平洋rimintlectual的优点上的Pinnipeds古生物学 - 最近的研究表明，包括史前人在内的人类在塑造他们所居住的生态系统方面发挥了重要作用，并且我们今天熟悉的一些生态系统在过去的过去中都有不同的作用。 历史和古生态数据为考虑未来的决策的保护社区提供了至关重要的上下文信息，尤其是对于目睹了相对较新的人群下降的物种。我们的总体目标是探索在过去5000年中，环境和人为因素如何相互作用，以在东北太平洋海岸产生生态转变。 这些变化最完整的记录是在沿海考古遗址中发现的，可以研究过去的陆地和海洋生态系统的动物群以研究古生态转移。 此外，对重大生态转变的认识对于试图破译人口统计学和资源利用变化的考古学家将很重要。 在过去的研究中，使用同位素和考古数据研究了北部的皮草密封件，以表明该物种在过去1000年中改变了其繁殖和迁徙行为。 皮草密封骨的骨骼还可以追溯，以表明整个太平洋边缘的局部繁殖菌落的崩溃并不是同步的。 在这项研究中，我们将研究四种不同的pinniped物种的觅食，迁移，断奶和运输行为的变化，因为中新世是通过在同位素组成，存在/不存在，相对丰度和年龄/性别分布的时间序列上建立时间序列的。此外，我们将开发两种新方法来评估pinnipeds中的断奶年龄。第一个将在钉牙中使用生长结构作为断奶年龄和产妇投资的代理。另一种是一种生物地球化学方法，它在骨生长系列和牙齿牙本质中使用N同位素比的变化。我们将重点关注四个中心的多样性中心 - 东阿留申群岛，美国加拿大边界，俄勒冈州海岸和海峡群岛。该项目将包括广泛的文献搜索以及将现有的动物信息汇编成沿NE Pacific Margin的全新世捏动力学数据库。Broader的影响 - 这项研究将显示如何从考古数据中收集到对受威胁物种的生态的见解。这对于遗物种群中的物种很重要，当前的生态学可能是由于最近的剥削或环境变化而塑造的。我们将研究的四个物种中有三个目前正在经历迅速的人口下降，但这些下降的原因远非明显。 这项研究将提供有关这些物种在深段时间的生态学的基线数据，并指出与人为或环境扰动有关的过去是否经历了类似的下降。我们将与保护生物学家合作，使我们的数据可用于做出管理决策的人。为此，在2004年冬季，我们将共同举办一次会议，由UC-Pacrim资助，该会议将召集考古学家，历史学家，海洋哺乳动物生态学家，保护生物学家和社会科学家。我们的目标是在当今这些物种的生态学的背景下评估NE Pacific Pinnipeds的考古和历史记录，然后制定策略将这些信息整合到保护政策制定者的决策过程中。 该项目的更直接影响将是UCSC的研究生和本科生的教育。此外，我们的史前海洋哺乳动物生态学方法是在2002年和2003年发展成为Cosmos（加利福尼亚州立暑期数学和科学暑期学校）的模块。一群多样化的学生（8 - 12年级）参加了为期4周的课程，该课程融合了旨在融合学术，实验室和课堂运动，旨在介绍学者和激励年轻人。