| NSF Org: |
IOS Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 27, 2021 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 27, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 2120988 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Colette St. Mary
cstmary@nsf.gov (703)292-4332 IOS Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2021 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $239,400.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $239,400.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1050 STEWART ST. LAS CRUCES NM US 88003 (575)646-1590 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
Corner of Espina St. & Stewart Las Cruces NM US 88003-8002 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
Cross-BIO Activities, Animal Behavior |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
How do the physical environment, interactions with others, and an animal?s own characteristics act together to influence that animal?s movements through a landscape? This project will answer this question by bringing together several of the most influential themes in recent animal behavior and ecology research: movement ecology, individual behavioral differences, and social network approaches. Specifically, this project will employ new multilayer interaction network approaches to understand how interactions with other animals and the environment influence movement behavior in wild mice. This project will use animal location data obtained used automated tracking, hormonal and behavioral profiles of individual brush mice (Peromyscus boylii), and information about the physical environment through which mice move. Broader impacts of this project include teaching and mentoring of students, development of educational materials for K-12 students, and the development of animal tracking infrastructure available for use by the wider scientific community.
Despite the clear importance of animal dispersal as a central link between individual behavior and larger-scale ecological and evolutionary processes, the causes, consequences, and process of natal dispersal, movement between the birthplace and site of first reproduction, remain relatively enigmatic. The primary focus of this project will be the integration of established and influential paradigms for the study of the movement ecology and individual variation in dispersal behavior with rapidly-advancing multilayer network approaches connecting physical and social processes to develop a truly integrative understanding of individual variation in dispersal through a socially- and physically-heterogeneous landscape. This project will integrate multilayer interaction networks constructed using data obtained from automated tracking of Peromyscus mice with genetic, endocrine, behavioral, and environmental data to develop an integrative understanding of animal dispersal through landscapes that vary in social and ecological conditions through space and time. An additional objective is the development of research infrastructure through the reestablishment of animal tracking capabilities after previous tracking technology was destroyed by wildfire.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The rapidly-developing fields of animal movement ecology and social network dynamics offer powerful methods for investigating how wild animals interact with each other and their environments. With the availability of increasingly small tracking devices, the movements of a variety of small and cryptic species have been revealed. Through this Mid-Career Advancement Award, I used multi-level network analysis to integrate several types of data on the social and physical environments experienced by a population of interacting brush mice (Peromyscus boylii). The objectives of this project were 1) to apply multi-level network approaches to investigate how brush mouse movements were influenced by variation, both physical and social/behavioral, across the landscape (that is, are animal movement patterns affected by other resident animals and their behavioral profiles), and 2) to collaborate with staff at the University of California, Davis Natural Reserve System on the replacement of animal tracking infrastructure destroyed by a wildfire. This project resulted in several presentations at professional conferences and invited seminars at universities. Results have also been disseminated through published papers, with additional presentations and papers in development. Further, replacement animal tracking technology has been selected for the Natural Reserve at which the field work for this project took place. This project also supported the development of a graduate course "Movement Ecology," which I recently taught for the first time at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Through this course, graduate students gained familiarity with the scientific literature in movement ecology and developed proficiency in using the R programming language to analyze their own animal tracking data. Further, the analysis methods used in this project have informed both other research projects and educational opportunities for students at NMSU.
Last Modified: 06/10/2025
Modified by: Karen Mabry
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