Janet Mann - US grants

Bottlenose dolphins are characterized by a fission-fusion society, an elaborate communication system (e.g., vocal learning, acoustic memory, individual signatures, sonar) and long-term mother-offspring bonds (infants nurse for 3-6 years). Dolphin mothers and infants appear to simulate the fission-fusion society at large by separating and rejoining frequently from the earliest days of infancy. The communication system is likely to be the primary modality for maintenance of such bonds, yet no studies have identified how individuals use acoustic signals to indicate identity, location, or motivational state, and thus how they can coordinate movements over long distances. The aims of this study are (a) to determine the functions (motivation, localization, individual identification) of bottlenose dolphin signature and non-signature whistles by examining their use in natural behavioral contexts and responses during whistle playback experiments; and (b) to determine how bottlenose dolphin mother-infant pairs coordinate separations and reunions over large distances. Studies of dolphin communication have been limited because it is difficult for humans to localize the signaller and record the full spectrum of their high frequency calls. However, with localization methods (an acoustic array) and high-frequency recording, Dr. Mann can determine who is calling, examine the use of "eavesdropping" among bottlenose dolphins, and explore the mechanisms and functions of their complex communication system.

LTREB: Long-term study of bottlenose dolphin life history and social ecology.
Janet Mann and Richard Connor

Bottlenose dolphins are best known to the public through popular media and shows in aquaria. The Shark Bay Dolphin Project, the second longest running wild dolphin project worldwide presents a complex picture of dolphin life, including a long nursing period (3-6 years), delayed reproduction (12+ years), foraging and possibly other "traditions" that are passed down from mother to offspring, and hierarchical multi-level adult male alliances. Only the great apes have shown comparable behavioral, social, and cognitive complexity. Although the research site is in Shark Bay, Australia, the long-term project data are maintained at Georgetown University; over a dozen international investigators contribute to the project annually. With the LTREB, a database manager will create, coordinate, update, and preserve the project database so that it can be accessed by researchers. The long-term data currently contain over 10,000 sightings of dolphin groups over the last 20 years involving over 900 dolphins. Of those, over 300 have been individually tracked in detail for thousands of additional hours. The core feature of the Shark Bay Dolphin Project- detailed knowledge of individual life history, behavior, genetics, and ecology- not only serves as the basis for important theoretical insights on why dolphins have large brains, a long juvenile period and complex social system, but also attracts public interest and commitment to wildlife education and conservation (www.monkeymiadolphins.org).

The social, demographic and cognitive features of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) show remarkable parallels with primates, offering a powerful method for examining how large brains, extensive maternal care, behavioral flexibility and prolonged developmental periods evolved. In this project the investigators examine the social and ecological factors related to dolphin female reproduction and development using innovative techniques in both computer modeling and biological sampling. The investigators will examine what factors contribute to female calving success, why dolphins have such a long juvenile period, and what patterns of information (cultural) transmission in the population favor such behavioral plasticity. They have also initiated a study that involves collecting blow samples (fluid exhaled from the blowhole) and have already extracted DNA from blow. These samples will also be used for hormone and fatty acid assays, opening up exciting new avenues for the non-invasive study of reproduction, stress, maturation and diet. The attributes of the project include: (1) the size and unprecedented detail of the 25-year longitudinal dataset; (2) the creation of an extensive integrated relational database with a web platform; (3) the computational modeling for analyzing complex multi-dimensional associations in the context of a large social network; (4) the natural variation in social, ecological, and reproductive parameters; (5) the new direction in developing non-invasive biological sampling techniques; and (6) the scientific value of studying a species on par with primates. The inter-disciplinary nature of this collaboration will foster innovation and intellectual exchange across multiple disciplines, advancing our understanding of complex animal societies. The project supports five graduate and approximately 22 undergraduate students from Biology and Computer Science. The database will be broadly accessible through our website and will serve as an educational tool and as a foundation for design of similar long-term data warehouses. Thus, the next generation biologists will be better equipped to integrate computer science approaches and database technology.

Detailed knowledge concerning the diet, kinship, health, and hormonal status of top marine predators is critical to understanding basic cetacean biology, ecology, life history, and evolution, and can contribute substantially to management and conservation efforts. However, such information is extremely difficult to obtain without stressing, harming, and/or capturing animals. This study develops a new, non-invasive method (blow-sampling) that involves collecting fluid exhaled from the blowhole and will explore the full potential of this biological sample. The individual life histories, reproduction, behavior, genetics, and ecology of more than 1200 Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia have been monitored since 1984. In addition, five adults and their offspring visit a beach (Monkey Mia) daily to receive fish from humans. Blow samples collected daily from these individuals will be used to develop assays of reproductive states, relatedness and diets, which can then be applied to evaluate these variables in the larger population. In a 2008 pilot study 90 blow samples from provisioned and non-provisioned dolphins were collected and mtDNA (maternally inherited) was extracted from their blow. These samples will be used to identify reproductive state through hormones, diet through fatty acids, health through disease presence, and kinship through mtDNA and nuclear DNA, which can then be correlated with age, sex, behavior, reproductive patterns and survival. This innovative and non-invasive project will acquire much-needed data for improving dolphin welfare, and can potentially set a new standard for biological sampling of cetaceans.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

Long-term studies of mammals are precious resources for scientists and the public, but rarely are such data sets fully exploited. This is largely because, with volumes of data stored in many formats (e.g. spreadsheets, text, image files), biological inquiry is often limited to manual approaches and traditional statistical analyses. To improve analytical capability, we have developed a data warehouse for the most comprehensive long-term dolphin dataset collected to date. This warehouse, containing 25+ years of detailed observational data,, including >14,000 sighting records on >1200 dolphins, focal follows on 214 individuals (detailed individual behavioral data), genetic, ecological (habitat, prey, predators), and extensive demographic data. Biologists working with this data have used traditional statistical and linear (cause-effect) approaches for analysis. Even with large longitudinal data sets, scientists must choose just a few variables, and can easily select less-important or even the "wrong" feature. To promote more interactive data exploration, we propose developing a comprehensive visual graph inquiry platform that contains a query language for dynamic graphs, graph mining algorithms, and an intuitive visual mapping for community and individual animals that will allow biologists to explore broader data patterns before they commit to a particular set of analyses. While new research is surfacing in graph databases, graph mining, and graph visualization, an integrated, holistic approach for querying, exploring, and visualizing dynamic graphs does not exist.

Such computational tools offer biologists access to more dynamic multi-dimensional approaches to help answer biological questions related to (1) spatio-temporal and dynamic dimensions of network structure; (2) socio-cultural transmission of behavior; and (3) social, ecological, and demographic factors influencing female reproduction. By exploiting both biological and computational approaches, our new tools will help unveil the properties of large, dynamic, heterogeneous data sets and their underlying social complexity. This project will serve as a template for observational large scale animal studies in the areas of data collection, data integration, data management, visual data exploration, and data analysis. Very few longitudinal datasets on mammals are widely available. Some of the tools we develop will enable scientists to visually explore patterns rather than download a set of variables in table form. This will enable scientists to explore data properties and is expected to yield more insights than traditional data analysis.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is a highly competitive, federal fellowship program. GRFP helps ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States by recognizing and supporting outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees in fields within NSF's mission. GRFP provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering research. The award to this GRFP institution supports NSF Graduate Fellows pursuing graduate education at the institution.

Maternal Effects on Ecology, Sociality, and Fitness in a Long-Lived Mammal

Non-technical Abstract:
This project provides students with an outstanding research experience in which they can ask and answer significant questions concerning how genetic, social, and ecological factors interact to shape evolutionary processes and fitness. Through data collection on wild Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) at a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Shark Bay, Australia and genetic sample processing and analysis at the University of the Sunshine Coast's GenEcology Research Centre in Queensland, Australia, students will gain hands on experience performing research as part of an international, long-term collaboration. Each student will be involved through 1 of 3 cohorts and focus on a specific theme centered around the overall topic of maternal influence on behavior and fitness. Students in cohorts 1 and 2 will focus on ecological maternal inheritance and its fitness consequences, and social maternal inheritance and its fitness consequences, respectively, whereas those in cohort 3 will examine how these maternal influences and their fitness consequences extend beyond a single generation within the maternal genetic line. Through this project, students will be contributing to one of the most comprehensive and detailed long-term studies of a wild mammal in an exciting intellectual, cultural, and physical environment. This IRES will directly support at least 4 graduate and 9 undergraduate students.

Technical Abstract:
Our primary goal is to provide students with an outstanding research experience in which they can ask and answer significant questions in biology. To do this, students will examine the fitness consequences of inherited genetic, ecological and social traits in wild bottlenose dolphins in collaboration with scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast GenEcology Research Centre in Queensland, Australia and in the field at the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Shark Bay, Australia. Students will contribute to one of the most comprehensive and detailed long-term studies of a wild mammal in an exciting intellectual, cultural, and physical environment. At the core of this work is trying to understand how genetic, social and ecological factors shape evolutionary processes and fitness. By focusing on well-known dolphins, students can broadly investigate how genetic diversity maps onto variation in social and ecological patterns. Such individual variation is increasingly recognized for its importance in ecological and evolutionary dynamics. However, to date, data on how such variations in social behavior and ecology are transmitted, and how they interact with genetic background are limited. Understanding this relationship is crucial, particularly for species that show high levels of variation like bottlenose dolphins. Shark Bay bottlenose dolphins have well-documented social and ecological variation; some individuals are highly social while others live rather solitary lives; some use all habitats, while others specialize in one or two, with similar variation in home range size and foraging tactics. Lifetime fitness variation is substantial, where 24.3% of females do not produce surviving calves. In this study, students will draw on our longitudinal data and collect new data to empirically address their own research questions regarding the relationship between sociality, ecology, and genetic heritage.

This project was funded by the IRES program of NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).

This International Research Experience for Students program will support at least three U.S. undergraduate and two U.S. graduate students each year (15 students in total) to collaborate with researchers in Australia to investigate the long-term impacts of an extreme marine heat wave on a population of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that has been studied since 1984. Students will conduct field work in Shark Bay, Western Australia (a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the highest vulnerability rating according to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index), and then wet-lab work at the University of the Sunshine Coast (Queensland, Australia). Students will use behavioral and genetic data to answer three questions regarding the dolphin population: 1) how does individual dolphin behavior change when their habitat is disrupted? 2) how does the individual’s social environment and foraging strategies affect their ability to respond to environmental change? and 3) how does habitat fragmentation affect genetic and social connectivity throughout the population? Students will gain computational, field and wet-lab skills from addressing these research topics, as well as policy skills and broad socio-cultural and biological perspectives on wildlife management from their collaborations with local stakeholders and government researchers. In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions in the wild, and bring back tools to apply to local conservation issues and wildlife management in the US.

In this program students will be afforded a unique opportunity to study genotype-environment interactions among wild dolphins, studied since 1984, and their responses to an extreme climatic event in a global biodiversity hotspot. In 2011, the most extreme marine heat wave on record devastated the Shark Bay ecosystem, leading to a 90% reduction in foundational seagrass coverage, the collapse of local fisheries, and significant changes to the abundance and distribution of marine megafauna, including bottlenose dolphins. Shark Bay dolphins exhibit a diverse behavioral repertoire including tool use, multiple foraging tactics, highly differentiated social bonds, and distinct social and ecological phenotypes. This behavioral heterogeneity allows us to investigate the adaptive value of such traits in the decade before and after exposure to an extreme climate event. Student-led research will investigate the widespread impacts on the dolphin population, focusing on three areas of inquiry including fine-scale population structure, individual social and foraging behavior, and individual variation in reproductive success after the heatwave. Our long-term 37+ year database of behavioral, ecological, genetic, and demographic data will allow students to analyze baseline population dynamics, parameterize simulations, and develop hypotheses. Next, while in the field, undergraduate and graduate students will work together to collect data continuing a decade-plus assessment of the behavioral and fitness consequences of environmental disturbance. Participants will be trained by expert Australian collaborators in genetic data analysis and the study of genotype-environment interactions. Students will analyze population changes in the context of their impact on inbreeding potential, resource competition, social networks, and ultimate fitness consequences. The proposed integration of animal behavior and landscape genetics will advance our understanding of ecological and evolutionary principles by leveraging a natural experiment in rapid environmental change. This program affords a diverse group of students from the DC-metro area international research experience in meeting some of the biggest environmental challenges we currently face. By contrasting local systems with international systems facing different environmental conditions, managed by different governments, with distinct regional complexity, students will gain extensive insight into pressing conservation problems.

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.