Development of a Whole Organism Micro-Respirometry System to Enhance Environmental Toxicology Studies in Coastal Ecosystems at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL)

奖励摘要9977441在切萨皮克生物实验室（CBL）开发一种全生物微呼吸测量系统，以加强沿海生态系统的毒理学研究。（主要研究者：Tenore， Miller, Rowe, Paynter, Houde）在CBL的环境科学中，正在进行的渔业、环境化学、毒理学和生态学的研究跨越了生物组织的细胞到生态系统水平。这种跨学科的方法吸引了访问科学家与CBL教师一起工作，并确保研究生在教育项目中有机会接触到广泛的科学问题和环境研究方法的研究。整个生物体的微呼吸测量系统能够非常精确地测量单个水生动物的氧气和二氧化碳的变化，这将加强将细胞与生态系统生物过程与生物能量效应联系起来的研究能力，并为研究生提供在规划其论文研究项目时进行此类研究的培训和可用性。环境研究的一个前沿是将生态学和毒理学方法结合起来，将压力的亚致死效应与最终影响生物群落组成/生存和生态系统生产的种群效应联系起来。这些亚致死效应可由极端环境因素引起，如水温或食物质量/数量或接触污染物。如果要预测这种亚致死应激对种群动态、生存和生产的影响，就有必要了解、量化和预测应激暴露与生物能量学之间的因果关系，以及由此对种群动态的影响。这类研究可用于检查鱼类和无脊椎动物的胚胎、幼虫和幼年生命阶段的能量收支。生命早期往往是对亚致死压力最敏感的阶段。记录生命早期生殖代谢成本和身体生长之间能量分配的变化，以及成虫在产生卵子和精子方面的生殖努力，将为以下方面的理解提供关键信息：种群水平上幼虫生存和生长（招募成功）的变化；物种的生存;以及海洋环境中人口和系统生产对变异性、周期和富营养化事件的响应。

Award Abstract 9977441Development of a whole organism micro-respirometry system to enhance toxicology studies in coastal ecosystems at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (CBL). (Principle Investigators: Tenore, Miller, Rowe, Paynter, Houde)Ongoing research in fisheries, environmental chemistry, toxicology, and ecology in the environmental sciences at CBL span cellular through ecosystem levels of biological organization. This transdisciplinary approach attracts visiting scientists to work with CBL faculty and insures graduate students in the education program a sound exposure to research across the broad spectrum of scientific questions and methodologies of environmental research. The acquisition of a whole organism micro-respirometry system that enables extremely accurate measurements of changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide of individual aquatic animals will strengthen research abilities in linking cellular to ecosystem biological processes to bioenergetic effects and provide graduate students access to training and availability for planning such research in planning their dissertation research project.One frontier of environmental research is combining ecological and toxicological approaches in linking sub-lethal effects of stress to population effects that ultimately affect biotic community composition/survival and ecosystem production. These sub-lethal effects can be caused by extremes in environmental factors such as water temperature or food quality/quantity or exposure to contaminants. If the effects of such sub-lethal stress on population dynamics, survival, and production are to be predicted, it is necessary to understand, quantify, and predict the causal link between exposure to stress and organismal bioenergetics and resultant effects on population dynamics. Such studies can be used to examine energy budgets during embryonic, larval, and juvenile life stages of fish and invertebrates. The early life stages are frequently the most sensitive stages to sub-lethal stresses. Documenting changes in energy allocation between the metabolic costs of reproduction and body somatic growth in the early life stages, as well as reproductive effort of adults in producing egg and sperm will provide critical information for understanding: population level changes in larval survival and growth (recruitment success); species survival; and population and system production in response to variability, cycles, and eutrophication events in marine environments.