CAREER: Empirical tests of biogeographic theory: island mammals in the Gulf of Maine

Islands are cradles of biodiversity – home to many species found nowhere else on our planet. This project will document the biodiversity of islands located within the iconic yet understudied coastal lands and waters of the Gulf of Maine. Through surveys carried out by academic and community scientists alike, this research will explore the environmental and human factors that shape North America’s island mammal populations, spanning the ancient retreat of glaciers through present-day sea level rise, habitat change, and the arrival of invasive species. These unique ecosystems sustain the Gulf of Maine’s “blue economy”, contribute to globally relevant fisheries, and attract thousands of nature-based tourists annually. This project will generate multiple types of data that can guide conservation decision-making and will strengthen pathways for knowledge sharing between rural communities and wildlife managers. By building STEM identities at high schools and a primarily undergraduate institution, this project enhances our national STEM workforce and promotes scientific progress in a region where conserving biodiversity is closely tied to vibrant local livelihoods. This project advances NSF’s priorities in Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence. Identifying the biogeographic factors that produce variation across scales— from genes and species to clades and ecosystems— is vital not only for understanding the past but is increasingly relevant to predicting future conservation challenges. Island systems serve as natural laboratories for studying the processes that govern the evolution and distribution of biodiversity on our planet, yet the long-term legacies of human activities are not traditionally integrated into biogeographic assessments. This project will systematically catalogue the diversity of mammals over the past ~12,000 years in three island meta-archipelagoes of the Gulf of Maine, using a combination of museum collections, historical archives, biological surveys, and camera trapping using artificial intelligence to help identify the images. These data will be integrated with an updated assessment of island characteristics and glacial history for each region to test expectations of island biogeographic theory and disentangle how humans may have “bent” the rules. Whole genomes will be used to assess phylogeographic and divergence patterns across lineages of varying dispersal abilities, potentially revealing previously unrecognized endemism or translocations. A combination of modern and paleo-ecological research techniques will be used to evaluate island “syndromes” on the Isles of Shoals and uncover shifted ecological baselines due to the arrival of non-native mammals. As both undergraduate and high school students are involved in generating data and sharing it with their communities via novel STEM engagement spaces (e.g., “pop-up” museums), this project represents a seamless integration of research and education goals inherent to a CAREER award. 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. NSF Award ID: 2543541 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT,01003031DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Alexis Mychajliw | Institution: Middlebury College, MIDDLEBURY, VT | Award Amount: $1,195,317 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2543541 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2543541.html