Research Agenda

Review of the

Literature

Defining the
Problem

Advocating
Solutions

Review of the Literature

Review of the Literature - 1

Do Bottlenose Dolphins Have Distinct and Stable Personalities?

Kuczaj, Stan. “Do Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Have Distinct and Stable Personalities?” Aquatic Mammals, 29 Nov. 2015, https://www.academia.edu/19173787/Do_Bottlenose_Dolphins_I_Tursiops_truncatus_I_Have_Distinct_and_Stable_Personalities?auto=citations&from=cover_page.

The author of “Do Bottlenose Dolphins Have Distinct and Stable Personalities” which published on Academia is Stan Kuczaj who is famous of conducting marine mammal behavior and cognition laboratory. This research trys to find dolphins’ personalities by using the Five Factor Model which is a descriptive model of personality. The research is done by interacting with 16 bottlenose dolphins to find their reacting to human behaviors. The similar test was also conducted after Bahamas occurs to test their stability. The result shows that dolphins have consistent behavior and their individuality would not shift because of severe factors. This study has tight connection with my study of dolphin’s social behavior and intelligence by showing dolphins’ ability to adapt different environments and to maintain their personalities. The author of this research study inspired the other researchers to do other research on dolphin behavior and individuality.

Review of the Literature - 2

Personality and Affiliation in a Cooperative Task for Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Dyads

Bagley, K. C, Winship, K., Bolton, T., & Foerder, P. (2020). Personality and Affiliation in a Cooperative Task for Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Dyads. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 33. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5n43p6d7

This research study written by Kimberly Corinne Bagley, “Personality and Affiliation in a Cooperative Task for Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Dyads,” is published in International Journal of Comparative Psychology. The study is conducted to study whither personality dynamics in dolphins between individuals may influence cooperative behaviors. Subjects included 10 Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (RIMS) dolphins, was conducted at the dolphin housing facility of the RIMS located on Bailey’s Key off the coast of Roatan, Honduras. The test is to open a container to get food as a pair. The result shows that no dolphin dyads succeeded in opening the apparatus to obtain the food, but dolphins interacted with the apparatus and the behaviors can be analyzed. The author of this research was inspired by Kuczaj in finding dolphin’s personality.

Characterizing curiosity-related behavior in bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and rough- toothed (Steno bredanensis) dolphins

Lilley, M. K, de Vere, A. J, Yeater, D. B, & Kuczaj II, S. A. (2018). Characterizing curiosity-related behavior in bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and rough-toothed (Steno bredanensis) dolphins. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 31. Retrieved from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7sh5m0g8

The author of Characterizing curiosity-related behavior in bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and rough- toothed (Steno bredanensis) dolphins is Malin K. Lilley who received PhD in Life Sciencs. The study is trying to explore individual differences in curiosity and determine if dolphins perceive certain events to violate expectations in a similar way to other species. The subjects of this study were 15 bottlenose dolphins and was housed at Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach, Florida. There are two experiments conducted and one of the experiments relate to jack in the box, the other one relate to cylinder to test the curiosity of dolphins. The result shows that “the results indicate that the subjects were more interested in the stimulus with variable movement (jack-in-the-box) compared to a static object (cylinder), and the subjects displayed a wide range of individual differences in their reactions to the stimuli in Experiment 1.” Relating to the previous studies, the article proves that dolphins have different individuality and preferences over things.

Review of the Literature - 3

Characterizing curiosity-related behavior in bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and rough- toothed (Steno bredanensis) dolphins

Defining the Problem

Overfishing of Small Pelagic Fishes Increases Trophic Overlap between Immature and Mature Striped Dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0024554

This research study is conducted by Encarna Gómez-Campos, who is doing biodiversity research in Spain. This article is about how Western Mediterranean striped dolphins are influenced by decreasing sardine in the dolphin's food chain. Dolphins can be affected in different ways, such that low-quality prey is not enough to compensate for energy needs, offspring may be more susceptible to environmental extremes and other causes of mortality, and various physical disorders. The test is by finding changes in muscle characteristics of western Mediterranean striped dolphins to determine sex and age-related differences in habitat use patterns, infer diet composition and assess temporal changes in diet over the past two decades. The result shows that hake and sardines together contribute 60% to the diet of immature striped dolphins and nearly 90% to that of mature ones

PCB pollution continues to impact populations of orcas and other dolphins in European waters

Jepson, P., Deaville, R., Barber, J. et al. PCB pollution continues to impact populations of orcas and other dolphins in European waters. Sci Rep 6, 18573 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/srep18573

The researcher Jepson belongs to Institute of Zoology in England. The research focus on "actual impact of OC pollutants on European marine top predators." Researchers tried to find the impact of pollutant on dolphins. The experiment is conducted both on alive dolphins and dead dolphins and chemical determination of PCB concentrations in 1073/1081 (99.3%) fat samples was performed by two different laboratories. The toxicological data indicate that these populations greatly exceed concentrations at which serious toxic effects are known to occur. Pathological findings consistent with immunosuppression and increased susceptibility to disease at autopsy include macroscopic parasitic and bacterial pneumonia, high pulmonary and gastric macroparasite burdens, and systemic bacterial infections (sepsis). This problem that affected by poillution shows that dolphins immunine system is being affected with severe consequences. Potential impacts of PCB bioaccumulation in marine ecosystems may extend beyond European waters, particularly in globally distributed marine top predators

Concentrations of mercury in tissues of striped dolphins suggest decline of pollution in Mediterranean open waters

A. Borrell, A. Aguilar, V. Tornero, M. Drago, Concentrations of mercury in tissues of striped dolphins suggest a decline of pollution in Mediterranean open waters, Chemosphere, Volume 107,

2014, Pages 319-323, ISSN 0045-6535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.12.076.

The researcher is in the Department of Animal Biology and the Institute of Biodiversity at the University of Barcelona. This study investigated temporal mercury changes in the tissues of striped dolphins to infer the contamination of this metal in the marine waters of the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. The research method is through 23 samples collected from 1990 to 1993 and 30 striped dolphin samples from 2007 to 2009. The normality of the mercury concentration distribution was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The result shows that liver and kidney mercury concentrations were significantly higher in dolphins from the 1990 to 1993 sample than in the samples from 2007 to 2009. Even though the result shows a decrease in mercury, contamination with this element still exists; thus, high levels of mercury are still found in dolphins. Further actions against disposal should be made to ensure the marine environment.

Advocating Solutions

By-Catch: Problems and Solutions

Martin A. Hall, Dayton L. Alverson, Kaija I. Metuzals, By-Catch: Problems and Solutions, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 41, Issues 1–6, 2000, Pages 204-219, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0025-326X(00)00111-9.

The research focuses on the solutions to bycatch. The solution is to first understand the behavioral and ecological differences between target and non-target species and their responses to fishing gear. Scientists need to quantify the effects of bycatch on target and other species and incorporate them into management plans. But even more important is understanding the ecosystem impacts of the discard process. "The FAO code of conduct for responsible ®sheries (FAO, 1995) encourages nations to establish principles and criteria for the elaboration and implementation of national policies for responsible conservation of ®series resources and ®sheries management and development and states precisely that discarding should be discouraged. " (206)

According to the article, FAO has already approached the problem with bycatch. The code specifies the details of the guidelines for catching fish. It further states that for countries to protect their aquatic habitat and biodiversity, they should study to minimize bycatch by learning the effect of such action. Regarding the dolphin and tuna fish problem, the research suggests that "Most solutions came from the ®shers themselves; the role of the scientists was to facilitate communication, identify the causes of high dolphin mortality, promote the testing of new ideas and validate statistically experiments performed. Several changes in the gear (additions of ®ne mesh panel, rescue platforms, etc.) and in the procedures used (back down, hand rescue, etc.) were instrumental in the solution of the problem. "(211)

Biosorption: a solution to pollution?

Vieira, Regine H., and Boya Volesky. "Biosorption: a solution to pollution?." International microbiology 3.1 (2000): 17-24.

The researcher Regine is from Universidade Federal do Ceará, and her research was cited 3791 times. Some advantages of using biomass include cost-effectiveness and the use of abundant natural materials. Evidence suggests that biomass can be helpful in accumulating heavy metals. "Seaweeds, molds, yeasts, bacteria, crabshells, among other kinds of biomass, have been tested for metal biosorption with very encouraging results."(17). Her research goes into detailed plants to explain the benefits of their function and the ability to absorb heavy metals.

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The era of nanomaterials:

a safe solution or a risk for marine environmental pollution?

Esposito, Maria Consiglia, et al. "The era of nanomaterials: a safe solution or a risk for marine environmental pollution?." Biomolecules 11.3 (2021): 441.

Maria Consiglia Esposito is a Ph.D. student in Marine Ecotoxicology, and she has been a co-author of 14 pieces of research. In this research, she introduced a new material, ENMs, which stand for engineered nanomaterials. ENM has been identified as an innovative tool to address the global marine pollution problem. ENM is "more effective than conventional remediation approaches since nanometric materials show high reactivity and high surface-area-to-volume ratio, and a target-specific ability to capture toxic compounds."(2) More advantages of using ENM include reduced money, and labor, and increased efficiency in absorbing harmful metal particles that "adsorption is a mechanism broadly used both in traditional remediation approaches and nanoremediation for treating contaminated seawater."(11) Nanotechnology offers a solution to marine pollution by breaking down some toxic pollutants to revolutionize environmental remediation techniques. However, there is some uncertainty about this technology, such as assessing the risk to human or ecological health.