NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Trophic response of marine top predators to decadal changes in food web structure

Ramirez, Matthew David, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. The World Ocean has experienced unprecedented changes over the past century as a result of climate change and the rapid expansion of fisheries. Uncovering the relationships between these coupled environmental stressors and their impact on the feeding behavior of marine top predators (e.g., marine mammals, sea turtles) is critical to our understanding of the functioning, health, resilience, and adaptation of marine ecosystems to environmental disturbance. This project will apply cutting-edge molecular chemistry techniques to archived marine mammal and sea turtle tissues from multiple research collections to examine how foraging strategies and food web structure have changed since the late 19th century in response to changes in climate and fishing. Such information can be used to predict how marine predators and the food webs they control will respond to future ecosystem change in the upcoming century. The project will use amino acid isotope geochemistry to reconstruct changes in critical parameters of food web architecture (e.g., trophic position, niche breadth, food web baseline) supporting common bottlenose dolphins, harbour porpoises, and loggerhead sea turtles in the western North Atlantic since the late 1800's. Specifically, these data will be used to test three key hypotheses: 1) do decadal shifts in ocean productivity associated with major climatic shifts cause expansion/contraction of marine top predator trophic niches, 2) do declining prey and predator abundances cause marine top predators to compensate by foraging at lower trophic levels or expanding their trophic niches, 3) does increased interspecific competition from the recovery of sympatric species cause trophic niches to contract. This multi-species approach will resolve conflicting accounts of trophic response to environmental change. As part of this project, the fellow will partner with the University of Rhode Island's Inner Space Center (URI-ISC) to develop short educational videos and interactive programming related to ocean science and project activities. Using the URI-ISC's unique telepresence capacity, outreach products and programs will be used to engage the public and next generation of scientists across multiple platforms (e.g., social media, K-12 classrooms). This project will also support diversity in research engagement and training by making use of URI-sponsored programs that broaden the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM. 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.