Everything Nac

A group of researchers from Stephen F. Austin State University published a paper in the journal Animals that highlights how reintroduced noises related to human activity during the COVID-19 lockdown affected bottlenose dolphin attention and distractibility.

The paper was co-authored by Dr. Jason Bruck, research lead and assistant professor of biology at SFA; Paige Stevens, a doctoral candidate working with Bruck Lab; and Veda Allen, a graduate from SFA’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture. This research is being presented at the annual Animal Behavior Society Meeting in Portland, Oregon.

“The COVID-19 pandemic created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that allowed us, as scientists, to peek at how these animals’ behaviors might change in the absence of humans,” Stevens said.

The paper, titled “A Quieter Ocean: Experimentally Derived Differences in Attentive Responses of Tursiops truncatus to Anthropogenic Noise Playbacks Before and During the COVID-19-Related Anthropause,” looked at how dolphins under professional care housed in a sea-side lagoon habitat at Dolphin Quest Bermuda responded to human-made sound from an underwater speaker.

Before the pandemic, the team exposed dolphins to safe levels of noises from cruise ships, jet skis and low frequency sonar. As a graduate student, Stevens collected behavioral data when the tourism industry was in its most restricted months during the pandemic. She compared these responses to pre-pandemic responses, allowing the team to see how dolphins paid attention to common sounds both under normal conditions and after months of greatly reduced ocean noise.

Under pre-pandemic conditions, dolphins paid less attention to familiar cruise ship noises than idling jet skis and sonar sounds. Once human-related noises resumed, the dolphins in the study increased attentive responses to all sounds but noticeably responded up to six times more specifically to cruise ship noise. The observation indicated that the dolphins would need to adjust to human activity once again.

“Cruise ships were really affected during the pandemic and had to stop operating,” Bruck said. “It seemed that before cruises stopped, the dolphins had habituated to the noises the ships made. After cruises started back up, we were surprised to see that the dolphins had lost their ability to ignore those sounds.”

Research like this helps those who work with aquatic mammals understand how they respond and pay attention to changes in noise pollution after extended periods of reduced human activity.

“This study helps us make predictions about how wild dolphins may struggle to avoid distractions in an increasingly noisy ocean when there are big changes in soundscapes,” Bruck said. “This research has implications for dolphin conservation in the Gulf of Mexico, especially in Galveston Bay, where all three of these noise sources may affect a resident population of dolphins.”

While distracting these dolphins under professional care holds no risk and causes no harm, animals in the wild may fare differently. Distracting a dolphin in nature may lead to ship strikes, failed hunts and lost calves, according to Bruck.

“For many, the obvious management solution to noise pollution and human activity is to decrease it,” Stevens said. “But what we see here is that the pattern may matter just as much as the type of noise itself. This study highlights that we must think not only about the effects of each type of noise but also about how we integrate ourselves back into areas after a long-term reduction of our activities.”

To learn more about aquatic biology at SFA, visit sfasu.edu/biology.

By Alyssa Faykus, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University

Stephen F. Austin State University’s James I. Perkins College of Education has joined the University-School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation Coalition, a national organization dedicated to supporting educator preparation programs to meet the needs of future pre-K-12 students.

The US PREP Coalition is an organization of universities that provides resources and guidance to educator preparation programs to prepare teacher candidates to be classroom ready from the very first day of their careers. It helps teachers develop the content knowledge and competency to meet the needs of all K-12 students, especially those who have been historically underserved such as Black, Latino, Native American and/or economically disadvantaged students.

According to Dr. Jannah Nerren, chair of SFA’s Department of Education Studies, the US PREP Coalition will provide $300,000 in grant funds; travel funds for faculty and staff to attend professional development events conducted by US PREP over the next four years; the support of a regional transformation specialist and a clinical coach; access to materials and learning resources; and opportunities to collaborate with a coalition of educator preparation programs across the country.

“Embarking on this transformation process will entail a number of improvements, most notably moving to a yearlong clinical experience from what is currently a semester-long experience,” Nerren said. “It also will deepen the existing school district partnerships that are most effective in our collaborative preparation of preservice teachers.”

PCOE leadership and faculty members completed a rigorous selection process involving surveys, meetings with US PREP and interviews to demonstrate their commitment to transform their educator preparation programs and join the ranks of the other provider institutions in the coalition.

As a member of the coalition, PCOE will undergo a four-year transformation process to pilot, refine, scale and sustain the quality objectives across all pathways and programs. PCOE will also work with Lufkin Independent School District as its partner school district during its membership in US PREP. This partnership list will grow over the implementation process.

“As a new member of the coalition, we look forward to standing upon the shoulders of giants and joining collective efforts to equip the next generation of educators with the mindsets and tools necessary to provide a quality education to all K-12 students,” said Dr. Christina Sinclair, associate dean of assessment and accountability for PCOE.

According to Nerren, PCOE will begin with a one-year planning period, so program changes will begin to take effect in fall 2024. At that time, a cohort of teacher candidates will be selected to pilot the first group of yearlong teaching residents.

“Joining a coalition of like-minded educator preparation programs who are focusing on research-based field and clinical teaching experiences is a remarkable opportunity,” said Dr. Judy Abbott, dean of PCOE. “Partnering with public school professionals who are focused on developing teachers who engage children in meaningful learning is equally exciting. The US PREP Coalition is the catalyst for change at a local level as well as scaled change in higher education across the state of Texas and beyond.”

For more information about US PREP, visit usprepnationalcenter.com.

By Parastoo Nikravesh, senior marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University