Chemically Mediated Interactions in a Sedimentary Assemblage

化学环境与物种动态之间的相互作用对生态系统至关重要。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地影响群落的动态。本项目将研究生物源溴化芳烃的存在与海洋沉积组合中三个营养水平成员的动态之间的耦合。该项目利用蠕虫生产溴芳烃及其对周围生境的污染作为模型系统来审查下列问题：这些化合物的存在如何影响捕食率和干扰率？和2。细菌在控制沉积物污染水平方面有多重要？根据PI先前的研究，已知在这些溴芳烃的存在下，一些物种的招募从根本上减少了。然而，关于这些化合物对系统中的主要干扰力量、咬沉积物和挖掘捕食者的影响，以及维持沉积物中这些有毒溴化苯酚水平的过程的影响，还缺乏信息。本研究计划将利用多种实验室及现场实验，探讨生物源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分类群的丰度，这些化合物可能是海洋沉积群落中非常重要的结构力。

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.