Collaborative Research: At-sea experimental disturbances to characterize physiological plasticity in diving northern elephant seals

合作研究：海上实验干扰来表征潜水北象海豹的生理可塑性

• 批准号: 1921742
• 负责人: Allyson Hindle
• 金额: $ 17.09万
• 依托单位: University of Nevada Las Vegas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1921742&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; sea; experimental; disturbances

Marine animals must contend with ongoing environmental shifts and increased human activities in the ocean. Disturbances can affect the behavior of marine mammals, yet associated physiological costs remain unknown. Because their impressive capacity for diving is based on specialized physiology, it is likely that physiological costs limit and define the sensitivity of marine mammals to disturbances. This project will investigate variability of dive physiology in northern elephant seals by using experimental at-sea disturbances that elicit responses to noise - a stressor of global concern. The methods build on state-of-the-art logging technologies and will develop a new probe that will be capable of detecting oxygen management in the body. Cardiovascular physiology and oxygen use of the seals will be measured during routine diving, and compared with animals that experience a remote experimental disturbance while at sea. The project goal is to understand the physiological range and limits of this species, and to provide data that could predict marine mammal resilience to natural and anthropogenic stressors. These data will have wide-reaching implications for sensitive ecosystems and other species of concern that are not easily studied. It will be directly applicable to conservation and management of marine species and habitats. The project will train undergraduates, graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher, and will include extensive public outreach via state parks, and a public aquarium. Environmental changes, including noise pollution, represent a fundamental challenge to the structure and sustainable function of marine ecosystems. The goal of this project is to identify physiological variability in the oxygen management of a diving seal that can be directly linked to individual success in the ocean. The project's three objectives will be achieved using at-sea data collected from translocated juvenile elephant seals, via integrated measurements of cardiovascular physiology (EKG and oxygen sensors in blood or muscle) with simultaneously collected time-depth records and 3-dimensional acceleration data to interpret underwater activity. Objective 1 will provide the first comprehensive picture of the dive phenotype in the open ocean by characterizing interrelationships among heart rate, blood oxygen depletion, muscle perfusion, and fine scale dive behavior. It will also assess molecular markers of perfusion capability in muscles with different underwater oxygen demands. Objectives 2 & 3 are based on experimentally inducing the behavioral effects of acoustic disturbance observed in many aquatic species - extended dive durations and increased cost of transport. Both objectives will examine oxygen management strategies in response to stimuli. Comparing natural versus perturbed dives permits an assessment of individual plasticity in the dive phenotype, incorporating behavior and physiology. This is a critical first step in determining the capacity of a model species to extend diving, their response to at-sea disruptions in natural dive patterns, and, ultimately, to predict thresholds of disturbance beyond which they cannot compensate.

海洋动物必须与持续的环境变化和海洋中的人类活动增加。干扰会影响海洋哺乳动物的行为，但相关的生理成本仍然未知。由于它们令人印象深刻的潜水能力是基于专业生理学的，因此生理成本可能限制并定义了海洋哺乳动物对障碍的敏感性。该项目将通过使用引起对噪声的反应的实验性接收障碍来调查北部大象密封膜中潜水生理的变异性 - 全球关注的压力源。这些方法基于最先进的伐木技术，并将开发一种可以检测体内氧管理的新探针。在常规潜水期间将测量海豹的心血管生理学和氧气使用，并与在海上经历远程实验性干扰的动物进行比较。项目目标是了解该物种的生理范围和限制，并提供可以预测海洋哺乳动物对天然和人为应激源的弹性的数据。这些数据将对敏感生态系统和其他不容易研究的物种具有广泛的影响。它将直接适用于保护和管理海洋物种和栖息地。该项目将培训本科生，研究生和博士后研究员，并将包括通过州立公园和公共水族馆进行广泛的公共宣传。环境变化，包括噪声污染，代表了海洋生态系统的结构和可持续功能的基本挑战。该项目的目的是确定潜水密封的氧气管理中的生理变异性，该密封可以直接与海洋中的个人成功联系在一起。通过从同时收集的，具有同时收集的时间 - 多扩展记录和3维加速数据以解释下水下活动的数据，使用从易位的少年大象密封群中收集的ATSEA数据（EKG和氧气传感器），将实现该项目的三个目标。目标1将通过表征心率，血氧耗竭，肌肉灌注和精细规模潜水行为之间的相互关系来提供开阔海洋潜水表型的第一张全面图片。它还将评估在水下氧需求不同的肌肉中灌注能力的分子标记。目标2和3基于实验诱导许多水生物物种观察到的声学障碍的行为影响 - 延长潜水持续时间和增加的运输成本。这两个目标都将检查氧气管理策略，以响应刺激。比较自然与扰动潜水允许评估潜水表型中的个体可塑性，并结合了行为和生理。这是确定模型物种扩展潜水的能力，它们对自然潜水模式中的海上干扰的响应的关键第一步，并最终预测了无法补偿的干扰阈值。

项目成果

Calibration-free technique for the measurement of oxygen saturation changes in muscles of marine mammals and its proof of concept

用于测量海洋哺乳动物肌肉氧饱和度变化的免校准技术及其概念验证

• DOI: 10.1117/12.2290546
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Optical Biopsy XVI: Toward Real-Time Spectroscopic Imaging and Diagnosis
• 作者: Ortega-Martinez, Antonio;Hindle, Allyson;Franco, Walfre;Booker, Marloes;Goenka, Chhavi;Grange, Robert M.;Alfano, Robert R.;Demos, Stavros G.
• 通讯作者: Demos, Stavros G.

Visualizing Life in the Deep: A Creative Pipeline for Data-Driven Animations to Facilitate Marine Mammal Research, Outreach, and Conservation

• DOI: 10.1109/visap52981.2021.00007
• 发表时间: 2021-01-01
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE VIS ARTS PROGRAM (VISAP 2021)
• 作者: Kendall-Bar，Jessica;Kendall-Bar，Nicolas;Williams，Terrie M.
• 通讯作者: Williams，Terrie M.