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.

海洋动物必须应对持续的环境变化和海洋中人类活动的增加。干扰会影响海洋哺乳动物的行为，但相关的生理代价仍然未知。由于它们令人印象深刻的潜水能力是基于专门的生理学，因此生理成本很可能限制并定义了海洋哺乳动物对干扰的敏感性。该项目将通过实验性海上干扰来研究北象海豹潜水生理学的变异性，这些干扰会引发对噪音（全球关注的压力源）的反应。这些方法建立在最先进的测井技术的基础上，并将开发一种能够检测体内氧气管理的新探针。将在常规潜水期间测量海豹的心血管生理机能和氧气使用情况，并与在海上经历远程实验干扰的动物进行比较。该项目的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自然和人为压力源的恢复能力的数据。这些数据将对敏感的生态系统和其他不易研究的受关注物种产生广泛影响。它将直接适用于海洋物种和栖息地的保护和管理。该项目将培训本科生、研究生和博士后研究员，并将通过州立公园和公共水族馆进行广泛的公众宣传。包括噪声污染在内的环境变化对海洋生态系统的结构和可持续功能构成了根本性挑战。该项目的目标是确定潜水海豹氧气管理的生理变化，这与个人在海洋中的成功直接相关。该项目的三个目标将利用从易位的幼年象海豹收集的海上数据，通过心血管生理学的综合测量（心电图和血液或肌肉中的氧传感器）以及同时收集的时间深度记录和 3 维加速度数据来解释来实现水下活动。目标 1 将通过表征心率、血氧消耗、肌肉灌注和精细潜水行为之间的相互关系，首次全面了解公海潜水表型。它还将评估具有不同水下氧气需求的肌肉灌注能力的分子标记。目标 2 和 3 基于实验诱导在许多水生物种中观察到的声干扰的行为效应 - 延长潜水时间和增加运输成本。这两个目标都将检查响应刺激的氧气管理策略。比较自然潜水和扰动潜水可以评估潜水表型的个体可塑性，结合行为和生理学。这是确定模式物种扩展潜水能力、它们对海上自然潜水模式干扰的反应以及最终预测它们无法补偿的干扰阈值的关键的第一步。

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: 2018-02
• 期刊: Optical Biopsy XVI: Toward Real-Time Spectroscopic Imaging and Diagnosis
• 作者: Ortega;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

可视化深海生命：数据驱动动画的创意管道，促进海洋哺乳动物研究、推广和保护

• DOI: 10.1109/visap52981.2021.00007
• 发表时间: 2021-10
• 期刊: 2021 IEEE VIS Arts Program (VISAP
• 作者: Kendall;Kendall;Forbes, Angus G.;McDonald, Gitte;Ponganis, Paul J.;Williams, Cassondra;Horning, Markus;Hindle, Allyson;Klinck, Holger;Beltran, Roxanne S.;et al
• 通讯作者: et al