NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2018

Balisi Mairin, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2018, Broadening Participation of Groups Under-represented in Biology. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. Global change has produced key challenges to ecosystems today. These are challenges that the fossil record, which preserves biological responses to major disturbances over thousands to millions of years, is well-equipped to explain. This project focuses on two disturbances that impacted ecosystems approximately 10,000 years ago: the end of the last Ice Age, and the extinction of very large mammals (megafauna). These two events gave rise to abnormal present-day communities in which the largest predators tend to be medium- to small-sized mesocarnivores, like coyotes and bobcats. In the face of continuing global change and the removal of large carnivores like grey wolves, mesocarnivores before and after the dual disturbances present a natural laboratory for tracking how mammal communities respond to large-scale ecological and environmental perturbation. Set at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, this project embodies a double meaning for "community paleoecology": involving the diverse human communities of modern LA in studying the diverse carnivore communities of prehistoric LA. Using the paleontology of charismatic mesocarnivores as a "gateway science" by which to introduce the scientific method, the Fellow will: (1) train student interns from community colleges and UC Merced to identify and describe fossil species; and (2) crowdsource collection of paleoecological data by museum visitors, adding to a dynamic museum experience. To investigate living mesocarnivores in the aftermath of climatic change and megafaunal extinction, the Fellow is integrating radiocarbon dating, systematic taxonomy, geometric morphometrics, and stable isotope analysis of mesocarnivores and their prey from California ecosystems preserved over the past 50,000 years. The Fellow aims to: (1) build a robust temporal framework, ranging from pre-Last Glacial Maximum to Holocene post-extinction, on which to scaffold ecological inferences; (2) quantify changes in mesocarnivore community structure and ecomorphology; and (3) weigh the relative importance of climate versus extinctions in shifting mesocarnivore feeding ecology. By integrating paleontology and community ecology, this research will obtain deep historical insight into modern ecosystem function. Additionally, this project enables the Fellow to: (1) refine skills in mentoring and managing a research team; (2) develop collections-management and curation experience through identifying and cataloging specimens; and (3) strengthen outreach by innovating strategies for collections-based citizen science. 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.