USAP-DC

Part I: Nontechnical description: This award represents a collaborative geoscience research effort between US NSF and UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) researchers with efforts in each nation funded by their respective countries (Dear Colleague Letter NSF 16-132). The research will focus on understanding the links between behavior, ecology, and evolution in a Southern Ocean wandering albatross population in response to global changes in climate and in exploitation of natural resources. The most immediate response of animals to global change typically is behavioral, and this work will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how differences individual bird behavior affect evolution and adaptation for the population under changing environments. Characterization of albatross personality, life-history traits, and population dynamics collected over long time scales will be used to develop robust forecasting of species persistence in the face of future global changes. The results of this project will feed into conservation and management decisions for endangered Southern Ocean species. The work will also be used to provide specific research training at all levels, including a postdoctoral scholar, graduate students and K-12 students. It will also support education for the public about impacts from human-induced activities on our polar ecosystems using animations, public lectures, printed and web media. Part II: Technical description Past research has shown that individual animal personalities range over a continuum of behavior, such that some individuals are consistently more aggressive, more explorative, and bolder than others. How the phenotypic distributions of personality and foraging behavior types within a population is created and maintained by ecological (demographic and phenotypic plasticity) and evolutionary (heritability) processes remain an open question. Differences in personality traits determine how individuals acquire resources and how they allocate these to reproduction and survival. Although some studies have found different foraging behaviors or breeding performances between personality types, none have established the link between personality differences in foraging behaviors and life histories (both reproduction and survival, and their covariations) in the context of global change. Furthermore, plasticity in foraging behaviors is not considered in the pace-of-life syndrome, which has potentially hampered our ability to find covariation between personality and life history trade-off. This project will fill these knowledge gaps and develop an eco-evolutionary model of the complex interactions among individual personality and foraging plasticity, heritability of personality and foraging behaviors, life history strategies, population dynamics in a changing environment (fisheries and climate) using a long-term database consisting of ~1,800 tagged wandering albatross seabirds (Diomedea exulans) with defined individual personalities and life history traits breeding in the Southern Ocean. Climate projections from IPCC atmospheric-oceanic global circulation models will be used to provide projections of population structure under future global change conditions. Specifically, the team will (1) characterize the differences in life history strategies along the shy-bold continuum of personalities and across environmental conditions; (2) develop the link between phenotypic plasticity in foraging effort and personality; (3) characterize the heritability of personality and foraging behaviors; (4) develop a stochastic eco-evolutionary model to predict population growth rates in a changing environment. 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.

Person	Role
Jenouvrier, Stephanie	Investigator and contact
Patrick, Samantha	Co-Investigator

Antarctic Integrated System Science	Award # 1951500
Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems	Award # 1951500

USAP-1951500_1

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
Dryad	Data from: Individual life histories: Neither slow nor fast, just diverse	Rdata	exists
GITHUB	Evo-Demo Hyperstate Matrix Model Code Repository		exists
GITHUB	Hyperstate matrix model reveals the influence of personality on demography	Not Provided	exists
GITHUB	Subtropical anticyclone impacts life-history traits of a marine top predator	Not Provided	exists
ZENODO	Plastic Behaviour Buffers Climate Variability in the Wandering Albatross	Not Provided	exists
DRYAD	Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse	Not Provided	bad_url
ZENODO	Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses	Not Provided	exists
USAP-DC	The impact of boldness on demographic rates and lifehistory outcomes in the wandering albatross	ZIP Archive	exists

1. Sun, R., Van de Walle, J., Patrick, S. C., Barbraud, C., Weimerskirch, H., Delord, K., & Jenouvrier, S. (2022). Boldness predicts divorce rates in wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans). Biology Letters, 18(9). (doi:10.1098/rsbl.2022.0301)
2. Sun R., Rouby E., Weimerskirch H., Barbraud C., Delord K., Ummenhofer C. C., Jenouvrier S. Subtropical anticyclone impacts life-history traits of a marine top predator. BIORXIV/2025/640559
3. Van de Walle J., Garnier J. , Bonnet T. , Jenouvrier S. Toward a unified approach to modeling adaptation among demographers and evolutionary ecologists. In review Methods in Ecology and Evolution. HAL Archive ⟨hal-04851098⟩
4. Van de Walle J. #, van Daalen S. #, Patrick S. C., Barbraud C., Delord K., Weimerskirch H., Thorley J., Jenouvrier S. Linking differences in personality to demography in the wandering albatross. BIORXIV/2025/639933
5. Gillies N., Thorley J., Weimerskirch H., Jenouvrier S., Barbraud C., Delord K., Patrick S. C. 2025. Plastic behaviour buffers climate variability in the wandering albatross. In press Ecology and Evolution. (doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.70631)
6. Van de Walle J.#, Sun R.#, Fay R., Patrick S.C., Barbraud C., Delord K., Weimerskirch H., Jenouvrier S. Impact of boldness on demographic parameters, life-history outcomes, and population dynamics in the wandering albatross. Journal of Animal Ecology, 93: 676-690. (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14077)
7. Van de Walle J.#, Fay R., Gaillard J.-M., Barbraud C., Delord K., Gamelon, M. [...], and Jenouvrier S. 2023. Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse. Proc. R. Soc. B 290: 20230511. (doi:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0511)
8. Darby, J., Phillips, R. A., Weimerskirch, H., Wakefield, E. D., Xavier, J. C., Pereira, J. M., & Patrick, S. C. 2024. Strong winds reduce foraging success in albatrosses. Current Biology, 34(23), 5615-5621.e2. (doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.018)