NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2015

2015 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1523875
• 负责人: Michael Gil
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Gil Michael
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-03-01 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1523875&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2015, Broadening Participation. The fellowship supports a research and training plan in a host laboratory for the Fellow and a plan to broaden participation of groups under-represented in science. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Michael Gil is "Effects of prey social context on predator-prey interactions and community stability in coral reefs." The host institution for this fellowship is The University of California at Davis, and the sponsoring scientists include Andy Sih (primary), Marissa Baskett, and Mullica Jaroensutasinee (Walailak University, Thailand).In a variety of ecosystems, prey have been shown to rapidly propagate danger reactions and signals, across species and wide spatial ranges, by incidentally providing information to one another, e.g., by evading a predator. Prey behavior that results from this social information may have important consequences for predator-prey interactions and, ultimately, the structure of the greater community. In coral reefs, where mixed-species prey fishes consume algae that drive coral declines, social information shared among prey could influence global coral reef degradation to alga-dominated states. The fellowship research uses field experimentation, assisted by computer vision technology, combined with mathematical simulation modeling to examine the behavioral and ecological effects of social information in mixed-species reef fish assemblages. This integrated approach is revealing important insights regarding the role of social information in the dynamics and function of animal communities, a topic of general conservation concern that is largely unexplored in most taxa. Further, it elucidates mechanisms underlying community stability in coral reefs, a topic that continues to perplex researchers.Training goals include emphasis on quantitative methods and the study of animal behavior to formulate and parameterize a mathematical model for predicting the effects of social information on predator, prey, and resource dynamics. Public outreach includes creating micro-narrative films that educate a diverse public audience of non-scientists on core concepts in ecology/animal behavior and on what science and a career therein actually entail. These products are to be distributed through a variety of outlets, including an interactive public science communication website (co-administered with students) and lectures given to high schools with large populations of under-represented students. An international collaboration is being established between UC Davis and Walailak University (Thailand) whose benefits include ongoing ecological monitoring in Thailand and informing conservation efforts in socioeconomically invaluable coral reef ecosystems.

该行动为2015财年生物学生物学奖学金提供了一项NSF博士后研究奖学金，扩大了参与。奖学金支持该研究员的主持人实验室的研究和培训计划，并计划扩大人数不足的科学团体的参与。 迈克尔·吉尔（Michael Gil）奖学金的研究计划的标题是“猎物社会环境对珊瑚礁中捕食者 - 普雷相互作用和社区稳定性的影响”。该团契的主机机构是加利福尼亚大学的戴维斯分校，赞助科学家包括安迪·西希（Andy Sih）（主要），玛丽莎·巴斯基特（Marissa Baskett）和穆里卡·贾罗纳施塔捷（Mullica Jaroensutasinee）（泰国瓦拉拉克大学）。通过逃避捕食者。由这些社会信息产生的猎物行为可能对捕食者 - 捕食互动以及最终是更大社区的结构产生重要的影响。在珊瑚礁中，混合物种捕食鱼类消耗藻类的藻类驱动珊瑚下降的藻类，猎物之间共享的社会信息可能会影响全球珊瑚礁的退化，以藻类为主导的国家。奖学金研究使用了在计算机视觉技术的辅助下进行现场实验，并结合了数学模拟建模，以检查混合物种礁鱼组合中社会信息的行为和生态影响。这种综合方法正在揭示有关社会信息在动物群落动态和功能中的作用的重要见解，这是大多数分类单元中基本上无法探索的一般保护关注的话题。此外，它阐明了珊瑚礁中社区稳定性的基础机制，这个主题继续使研究人员困扰。培训目标包括强调定量方法以及对动物行为的研究，以制定和参数化数学模型，以预测社会信息对捕食者，猎物和资源动力学的影响。公众推广包括制作微叙事的电影，以对生态/动物行为的核心概念以及其中的科学及其实际上所产生的核心概念进行多样化的非科学家的公众观众。这些产品将通过各种媒体分发，包括互动公共科学通信网站（与学生共同管理）以及向拥有代表性不足的学生人数众多的高中提供的讲座。加州大学戴维斯分校和瓦拉拉克大学（泰国）之间建立了一项国际合作，其好处包括在泰国正在进行的生态监测以及为社会经济上宝贵的珊瑚礁生态系统提供的保护工作。