Chemically Mediated Interactions in a Sedimentary Assemblage

沉积组合中化学介导的相互作用

• 批准号: 9201857
• 负责人: Sarah Woodin
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-07-01 至 1995-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9201857&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Chemically; Mediated; Interactions; Sedimentary; Assemblage

The interplay between the chemical environment and the dynamics of species is of fundamental importance to ecosystems. Recruitment, predation, and biotic disturbance, for example, are commonly mediated by specific biogenic chemicals whose alteration can profoundly affect the dynamics of the community. This project will study the coupling between the presence of biogenic brominated aromatics and the dynamics of members of three trophic levels in a marine sedimentary assemblage. The project utilized the production of bromoaromatics by a worm and its contamination of the surrounding habitat as a model system for examining the following questions: 1. How does the presence of these compounds affect rates of predation and disturbance? and 2. How important are bacteria in controlling the level of sediment contamination? Based on the PI's prior research it is known that recruitment of some species is radically reduced in the presence of these bromoaromatics. However, there is a lack of information on the effects of these compounds on the major disturbance forces in the system, sediment-biting and digging predators, and on the processes that maintain the level of these toxic brominated phenols in the sediment. Using a variety of laboratory and field experiments, this research project will investigate the effects of the biogenic bromoaromatics on these processes. Given the global abundance in marine sedimentary habitats of taxa producing brominated aromatics, these compounds may be very important as structuring forces in marine sedimentary communities.

化学环境与物种动态之间的相互作用对于生态系统至关重要。 例如，招募、捕食和生物干扰通常是由特定的生物化学物质介导的，这些化学物质的改变可以深刻影响群落的动态。 该项目将研究生物溴化芳香烃的存在与海洋沉积组合中三个营养级成员的动态之间的耦合。 该项目利用蠕虫产生的溴芳香族化合物及其对周围栖息地的污染作为模型系统来研究以下问题： 1. 这些化合物的存在如何影响捕食和干扰的速度？ 2. 细菌在控制沉积物污染水平方面有多重要？ 根据 PI 之前的研究，已知这些溴代芳香族化合物的存在会大大减少某些物种的招募。然而，关于这些化合物对系统中的主要扰动力、沉积物叮咬和挖掘捕食者的影响，以及维持沉积物中这些有毒溴化酚水平的过程，缺乏信息。 该研究项目将通过各种实验室和现场实验，研究生物溴芳烃对这些过程的影响。 鉴于全球海洋沉积生境中产生溴化芳烃的类群丰富，这些化合物作为海洋沉积群落的结构力量可能非常重要。