Collaborative Research: RUI: MULTILEVEL EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON WILDLIFE HEALTH: AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

合作研究：RUI：城市化对野生动物健康的多层次影响：一种综合方法

• 批准号: 2244622
• 负责人: Elizabeth Addis
• 金额: $ 21.07万
• 依托单位: Gonzaga University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-15 至 2026-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2244622&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RUI; MULTILEVEL; EFFECTS

Urban areas are growing worldwide, causing significant loss of habitat for wildlife. Exactly how such changes in habitat lead to declines in wildlife populations is not fully understood. The associated mechanisms are hard to study because the species most negatively impacted simply don’t occur in urban habitats. This project focuses on a species, the Western Deer Mouse, that is found in both urban and rural habitats. Researchers will collect data on habitat, such as food availability and noise, and on mouse health, such as immune function and stress, along a gradient from urban woodlots to nearly pristine forests in and around Spokane, Washington. Data will be used to identify which factors most impact wildlife health in urban areas. Because wildlife can carry diseases that are passed to humans, information about the health of urban species has direct relevance to human health. Many undergraduate students from three institutions will be involved in the study, thereby gaining important interdisciplinary training. Additionally, two in-class research activities based on this project will be developed and implemented in courses at the three institutions, giving hundreds of additional students experience in research.Peromyscus sonoriensis was selected as a model organism because it inhabits a wide diversity of environments across an urbanization gradient, thus facilitating natural comparative analyses of direct and indirect impacts of urbanization. Most other studies focus on only one or a few variables of urbanization and the models that result are simplistic, as many variables are involved and frequently co-vary. This study uses a suite of urbanization variables that are predicted to affect, and be indicators of, an animal’s health. Correspondingly, “health” will be assessed with a variety of metrics of stress (acute and chronic), body condition (e.g., parasite infection, reproductive status), immune function (e.g., quantification of neutrophils, B cells, helper T cells), and gut microbiome analysis. Using research sites located along an urbanization gradient, researchers will: 1) quantify urbanization and its effects on habitat characteristics, 2) assess multiple metrics of deer mouse health, and 3) integrate responses between and within habitats and organisms to investigate multi-dimensional effects of urbanization on deer mouse health. The mechanism-based findings can be used in efforts to conserve or remediate habitats in the face of encroaching urbanization, enabling a proactive rather than reactive approach to conservation and restoration.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.

世界范围内的城市地区正在不断扩张，导致野生动物栖息地大量丧失。这种栖息地的变化究竟是如何导致野生动物数量减少的，目前尚不完全清楚，因为受影响最严重的物种根本不存在于城市中。该项目重点关注城市和农村栖息地中的一种物种——西部鹿鼠，研究人员将收集有关栖息地的数据，例如食物供应和噪音，以及小鼠健康状况，例如免疫功能和压力。 ，沿着从城市林地到华盛顿州斯波坎及其周边地区的近乎原始森林的数据将用于确定哪些因素对城市地区的野生动物健康影响最大。由于野生动物可能携带传染给人类的疾病，因此有关城市物种健康的信息与人类健康直接相关。来自三个机构的许多本科生将参与该研究，从而获得重要的跨学科培训。此外，将在三个机构的课程中开发和实施两项基于该项目的课堂研究活动，为数百名学生提供额外的经验。在研究中。Peromyscus sonoriensis 是选择作为模型生物体是因为它栖息在城市化梯度的广泛多样性环境中，从而有助于对城市化的直接和间接影响进行自然比较分析，大多数其他研究仅关注城市化的一个或几个变量，并且得出的模型是过于简单化，因为涉及许多变量并且经常共同变化。这项研究使用了一系列预计会影响动物健康并作为动物健康指标的变量，相应地，“健康”将通过各种指标进行评估。压力研究人员利用位于城市化梯度的研究地点进行了数据分析（急性和慢性）、身体状况（例如寄生虫感染、生殖状态）、免疫功能（例如中性粒细胞、B 细胞、辅助 T 细胞的定量）和肠道微生物组分析。将：1）量化城市化及其对栖息地特征的影响，2）评估鹿鼠健康的多种指标，3）整合栖息地和生物体之间和内部的反应，以研究城市化对鹿鼠的多维影响基于机制的研究结果可用于在城市化进程不断推进的情况下保护或修复栖息地，从而采取主动而非被动的方法进行保护和恢复。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得通过以下方式获得支持：使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。