Collaborative Research: The Drivers and Role of Immigration in the Dynamics of the Largest Population of Weddell Seals in Antarctica under Changing Conditions

合作研究：变化条件下移民在南极洲最大威德尔海豹种群动态中的驱动因素和作用

• 批准号: 2147554
• 负责人: Nancy Chen
• 金额: $ 3.21万
• 依托单位: University of Rochester
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-15 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2147554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Drivers; Role; Immigration

Part 1: Non-technical descriptionThis is a continuation of a long-term population dynamics study (1978-present) using an intensive mark-recapture tagging of Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica. Past work has become a global model for population studies of large animals. Results have documented strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. This program will add components to evaluate the demographic role of immigrant mothers, evaluate possible drivers of annual variation in overall population dynamics, assess genetic differences between immigrant and locally born mothers, and document patterns of gene flow among seal colonies in the Ross Sea region. These new aspects will focus on understanding of population structure, function, and genetics and provide key information for predicting how the seal population will respond to environmental change. The addition of genetic approaches will advance available data for multiple groups in multiple countries working on Weddell Seals. This work includes an early career scientists training program for faculty university graduate and undergraduate students and well as a defined program for data sharing. The research is paired with active education and outreach programs, social media, websites, educational resources, videos and high-profile public lecture activities. The informal science education program will expand on the project’s successful efforts at producing and delivering short-form videos that have been viewed over 1.6 million times to date. In addition, the education program will add new topics such as learning about seals using genomics and how seals respond to a changing world to a multimedia-enhanced electronic book about the project’s long-term research on Weddell seals, which will be freely available to the public early in the project.Part 2: Technical description Reliable predictions are needed for how populations of wild species, especially those at high latitudes, will respond to future environmental conditions. This study will use a strategic extension of the long-term demographic research program that has been conducted annually on the Erebus Bay population of Weddell seals since 1978 to help meet that need. Recent analyses of the study population indicate strong annual variation in reproduction, abundance, and population composition. The number of new immigrant mothers that join the population each year has recently grown such that most new mothers are now immigrants. Despite the growing number of immigrants, the demographic importance and geographic origins of immigrants are unknown. The research will (1) add new information on drivers of annual variation in immigrant numbers, (2) compare and combine information on the vital rates and demographic role of immigrant females and their offspring with that of locally born females, and (3) add genomic analyses that will quantify levels of genetic variation in and gene flow among the study population and other populations in the Ross Sea. The project will continue the long-term monitoring of the population at Erebus Bay and characterize population dynamics and the role of immigration using a combination of mark-recapture analyses, stochastic population modeling, and genomic analyses. The study will continue to provide detailed data on individual seals to other science teams, educate and mentor individuals in the next generation of ecologists, introduce two early-career, female scientists to Antarctic research, and add genomics approaches to the long-term population study of Erebus Bay Weddell seals. The research will be complemented with a robust program of training and an informal science education program.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.

第1部分：非技术描述这是一项长期人口动态研究（1978年至今）的延续，使用了南极洲Erebus Bay的Weddell Seals的密集标记重新标签。过去的工作已成为大型动物人群研究的全球模型。结果已经记录了繁殖，抽象和人口组成的强烈变化。该计划将添加组成部分来评估移民母亲的人口统计学作用，评估总体人口动态的年变异驱动因素，评估移民和本地出生的母亲之间的遗传差异以及Ross Sea地区密封群体之间基因流的文档模式。这些新方面将集中于对种群结构，功能和遗传学的理解，并提供关键信息，以预测密封种群将如何对环境变化做出反应。遗传方法的添加将促进多个在Weddell Seales上工作的国家的可用数据。这项工作包括一项早期的职业科学家培训计划，针对教职大学毕业生和本科生，以及确定的数据共享计划。这项研究与主动教育和外展计划，社交媒体，网站，教育资源，视频和备受瞩目的公共演讲活动配对。非正式的科学教育计划将扩大该项目在制作和交付短形式视频方面的成功努力，这些视频迄今已被观看超过160万。此外，该教育计划将添加新的主题，例如使用基因组学学习密封件，以及密封如何对不断变化的世界响应多媒体增强的电子书，内容涉及该项目对Weddell Seals的长期研究，该项目在项目的早期就可以免费获得公众。第2：技术描述对野外野外疾病的方式需要可靠的预测，尤其是在高纬度地区的情况下，这将是对环境的回应。这项研究将使用长期人口研究计划的战略扩展，该计划每年在Weddell Seals的Erebus Bay人群中进行，以帮助满足需求。对研究人群的最新分析表明，繁殖，抽象和人口组成的年度差异很大。最近，每年加入人口的新移民母亲的数量最近都在增加。因此，大多数新母亲现在是移民。尽管移民人数越来越多，但移民的人口重要性和地理起源尚不清楚。研究将（1）添加有关移民人数差异的驱动因素的新信息，（2）比较并结合有关移民妇女及其后代与当地出生的女性的生命率和人口统计作用的信息，以及（3）添加基因组分析，以量化研究人群中遗传流动水平和研究人群中的基因组分析水平。该项目将继续对Erebus湾的人口进行长期监测，并使用标记重新接收分析，随机种群建模和基因组分析的组合来表征人口动态和移民的作用。这项研究将继续向其他科学团队，下一代生态学家中的其他科学团队，教育和精神个人提供有关单个密封的详细数据，向南极研究介绍了两名早期职业，女科学家，并为Erebus Bay bay Weddell Seals的长期人口研究添加基因组学方法。这项研究将通过强大的培训计划和非正式的科学教育计划完成。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被视为通过评估而被视为珍贵的支持。