RAPID: The effects of wildfire on salmonid olfaction and behavior

RAPID：野火对鲑鱼嗅觉和行为的影响

• 批准号: 2136943
• 负责人: Eric Palkovacs
• 金额: $ 20万
• 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: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2136943&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; effects; wildfire; salmonid; olfaction

Olfaction, the sense of smell, is critical for aquatic animals to sense their surroundings. Toxic compounds in the environment may interfere with this ability. Wildfire has become a dominant feature of Western landscapes. When forests burn, they can release toxic heavy metals, which ultimately end up in streams. These compounds may interfere with the ability of animals to smell their surroundings, thereby changing behavior. This research examines the effects of recent California wildfires on the olfaction and behavior of Pacific salmon. Salmon use their sense of smell to detect predators. If this ability is disrupted, they may quickly become a predator’s lunch. Salmon also use smell to find their way back to their home streams to reproduce after years at sea. This process, called olfactory imprinting, is a specialized form of learning that juvenile salmon experience in streams. If this imprinting is disrupted, they are unable to find their way back to their home stream as adults. This research uses behavioral experiments to test whether fish from fire-impacted streams are less able to smell predators. It uses behavioral experiments and cellular studies of olfactory function to test whether fish from fire-impacted streams are less able to recognize and imprint on their home watersheds. This project will train students, broaden participation in science, advance a general understanding of the effects of sensory pollutants on wild populations, and contribute critical information to inform salmon management in a drier, more fire-prone landscape.In aquatic environments, olfactory cues provide important information that animals use to make behavioral decisions. Wildfires may cause large-scale disturbance to aquatic chemical environments that may impact olfaction and behavior at the scale of entire ecosystems. Fires release organic and inorganic compounds into streams. Some of these compounds, including heavy metals, may disrupt olfaction and alter behavior. This proposed research combines behavioral experiments with gene expression assays to ask: How does wildfire impact juvenile salmonid olfaction and behavior in natural streams? Recent wildfires that occurred in August 2020 along the Central California Coast have generated a mosaic of burned and unburned watersheds. This project uses a paired sampling design, pairing burned and unburned streams within four watersheds. Spatially isolated sites within each watershed have been selected to ensure juvenile salmonids cannot move between the burned and unburned sites. This project will measure the concentrations of heavy metals in stream water and in fish muscle tissue from burned and unburned streams within each watershed. The behavior of juvenile salmonids from burned and unburned streams will be compared in terms of predator avoidance and recognition of natal stream water. The expression of genes associated with normal olfactory function and natal homing will be compared between fish from burned versus unburned streams. If the release of heavy metals by fire disrupts juvenile salmonid olfaction, then fish from burned streams are expected to exhibit weaker predator avoidance, impaired recognition of natal stream water, and reduced expression of genes associated with olfactory imprinting.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.

嗅觉是嗅觉，对于水生动物感知周围环境至关重要。环境中的有毒化合物可能会干扰这种能力。野火已成为西方风景的主要特征。当森林燃烧时，它们可以释放有毒的重金属，最终会流入溪流。这些化合物可能会干扰动物闻到周围环境的能力，从而改变行为。这项研究检查了最近加利福尼亚野火对太平洋鲑鱼嗅觉和行为的影响。鲑鱼利用他们的嗅觉检测捕食者。如果这种能力被禁用，它们可能会很快成为捕食者的午餐。鲑鱼还用气味找到了回到家乡的路，多年来在海上繁殖。这个过程称为嗅觉印记，是一种专业的学习形式，少年鲑鱼在溪流中的体验。如果这种烙印被禁用，他们将无法找到成年人回到家庭。这项研究使用行为实验来测试来自火流溪流的鱼是否闻到捕食者的味道较低。它使用嗅觉功能的行为实验和细胞研究来测试来自火势溪流中的鱼是否较少能够在其家庭流域上识别和烙印。该项目将培训学生，扩大科学的参与，对感官污染物对野生种群的影响有了一般的了解，并为信息提供了关键信息，以告知鲑鱼管理，更容易发生火灾，在水生环境中，嗅觉提示提供了重要的信息，这些信息提供了重要的信息，这些信息提供了用来做出行为决策的重要信息。野火可能会造成大规模的灾难，以便在整个生态系统的规模上影响嗅觉和行为。火灾将有机和无机化合物释放到流中。这些化合物中的一些，包括重金属，可能会破坏嗅觉和改变行为。这项拟议的研究将行为实验与基因表达测定法相结合以提出：野火如何影响少年鲑鱼嗅觉和自然流中的行为？最近在加利福尼亚中部海岸发生的最近发生的野火产生了燃烧和未烧毁的流域的镶嵌。该项目使用配对的采样设计，在四个流域内燃烧和未燃烧的溪流配对。选择了每个流域内的空间隔离地点，以确保少年鲑鱼不能在被燃烧的地点和未燃烧的地点之间移动。该项目将通过每个流域内的燃烧和未燃烧的溪流中的溪流水和鱼类肌肉组织中重金属的浓度。将根据捕食者的避免和识别出生水的识别来比较燃烧和未燃烧的溪流中少年鲑鱼的行为。与未燃烧的流相关的鱼类之间，将比较与正常嗅觉功能和出生寄养相关的基因的表达。如果通过火灾释放重金属会破坏少年鲑鱼嗅觉，那么预计燃烧的溪流中的鱼类会避免较弱的捕食者，对鼻水的认识受损，并降低了与嗅觉烙印相关的基因表达的表达。该奖项通过评估师的构成师的构想，反映了NSF诚实的构成师生的构成师的影响力。