RUI: Analyzing demographic variability of the intertidal sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus in the context of oceanographic changes using a unique time series data set

RUI：使用独特的时间序列数据集分析海洋学变化背景下潮间带海胆 Strongylocentrotus purpuratus 的人口变化

• 批准号: 0623934
• 负责人: Michael Russell
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Villanova University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0623934&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Analyzing; demographic; variability; intertidal

Many marine species, from plankton to sea birds, show a response to changing physical conditions in the ocean. Some responses may be due to redistribution of individuals but others appear to be due to changes in productivity and the subsequent cascade to secondary production. Intertidal species should show demographic responses to changing oceanographic conditions but this prediction has not been tested, primarily because of a general lack of long-term data sets for most intertidal species. This project uses historical demographic data for the purple sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, from Vancouver Island, Canada, to Punta Baja, Mexico. Some data are from previous work of the investigators in the 1960s and 1980s and some were compiled from the literature and contributions from colleagues. The focus of this study is to build on and extend this unique time-series of demographic data and analyze it in the context of oceanographic changes. The researchers will revisit sites (and specific tidepools) along the coast where sea urchins were sampled in the 1980s and earlier to test the hypothesis that intertidal species respond to large-scale changes in ocean conditions. Local variability could obscure or swamp any oceanographically-driven changes, and particular tidepools characteristics could determine site-specific processes. The focus is to assess the effects of large-scale oceanographic processes on five aspects of demography: growth, reproduction, recruitment, density, and survival. Robust growth estimates are central to separate age-0 from older individuals in estimating recruitment. In addition, growth combined with size structure is the basis of estimating survival and secondary production. Four specific growth questions will be addressed: 1) Do growth rates respond to changing ocean conditions? To assess oceanographic effects on growth requires accounting for growth variability due to changes in conditions between the time of marking urchins and subsequent collection after one year. In addition, growth allometry of jaw size relative to body diameter changes in response to available food. This change will be assessed for the present study period. Accordingly, the second question is: 2) Does year-to-year variation in growth affect methods used to quantify growth and can growth allometry be correlated with oceanographic metrics? Previous work demonstrates the potential significance of local physical conditions so the third growth question is: 3) Does exposure of a tidepool or position within it affect growth and do allometric differences reflect microsite resource variability within a pool? Interpretation of the growth data in these questions is model dependent, so: 4) Which growth model is most appropriate? To assess changes in reproduction, monthly gonad sizes will be measured at eight sites. At some sites, historical data from the 1950s and 1960s as well as the 1980s are available. We will assess changes in recruitment based on size structure of populations sampled from the 1960s through '80s and for the few available sites in the 1990s. Shifts in shapes of size distributions and in particular the fraction of the population represented by age-class-0 address the question: How does the center of maximum recruitment along the coast from Canada to Mexico shift in response to changing ocean conditions? There exist density estimates from the 1950s, 1960s and 1980s and so it will possible to assess whether size-specific density has changed and whether any changes are associated with physical-oceanographic changes or other environmental changes (such as changes in sea otter populations)? Changes in survival rates over the past two decades will be quantified. Recognizable geographic patterns that can be associated with temperature, disease, or predation will be explored. Broader Impacts & Education: This project will enhance opportunities for student participation in research at a primarily undergraduate institution (Villanova). Students will be involved in all aspects of the project: field and lab work, data analysis, authorship on publications, and presentations at conferences. Villanova offers an undergraduate course, Field Ecology and Evolution, that includes an extended field-based component. This course will be offered in 2008 and concentrate on the Pacific intertidal biome of North America and highlight field sites in this study. In addition, the information produced from this project will be shared with a wider audience through the Science NOW program at the California Academy of Science.

许多海洋物种，从浮游生物到海鸟，都对海洋中不断变化的物理条件做出反应。一些反应可能是由于个体的重新分配，但其他反应似乎是由于生产力的变化以及随后的次级生产级联。潮间带物种应显示出对不断变化的海洋条件的人口反应，但这一预测尚未得到检验，主要是因为普遍缺乏大多数潮间带物种的长期数据集。该项目使用了从加拿大温哥华岛到墨西哥蓬塔巴哈的紫色海胆（Strongylocentrotus purpuratus）的历史人口统计数据。一些数据来自研究人员在20世纪60年代和80年代的先前工作，一些数据来自文献和同事的贡献。这项研究的重点是建立和扩展这一独特的人口数据时间序列，并在海洋变化的背景下进行分析。研究人员将重新访问沿着的地点（和特定的潮汐池），在20世纪80年代和更早的时候对海胆进行采样，以测试潮间带物种对海洋条件大规模变化的反应这一假设。当地的变化可能掩盖或淹没任何海洋学驱动的变化，特定的潮池特征可以确定特定地点的过程。重点是评估大规模海洋学过程对人口统计学的五个方面的影响：生长，繁殖，招募，密度和生存。稳健的增长估计是在估计招募时将0岁与老年人分开的关键。此外，生长量与大小结构相结合是估计存活率和二次生产力的基础。四个具体的增长问题将得到解决：1）增长率是否对不断变化的海洋条件作出反应？为了评估海洋对生长的影响，需要考虑到由于标记海胆和一年后随后收集的时间之间的条件变化而引起的生长变异。此外，生长异速生长的颌骨大小相对于身体直径的变化，以应对可用的食物。将在本研究期间评估这一变化。因此，第二个问题是：2）生长的年与年之间的变化是否影响用于量化生长的方法，生长异速生长是否与海洋学指标相关？以前的工作表明，当地的物理条件的潜在意义，所以第三个增长问题是：3）是否暴露的潮池或在它的位置影响增长和异速生长的差异反映微网站资源的变化在一个池？在这些问题中，对增长数据的解释是依赖于模型的，所以：4）哪种增长模型最合适？为了评估生殖的变化，将在8个地点测量每月性腺大小。在一些地点，可以获得20世纪50年代和60年代以及80年代的历史数据。我们将根据从20世纪60年代到80年代抽样的人口规模结构和20世纪90年代的少数可用地点评估招募的变化。大小分布形状的变化，特别是0岁组所代表的人口比例，解决了这个问题：如何最大的招聘中心沿着从加拿大到墨西哥的海岸转移，以应对不断变化的海洋条件？有1950年代、1960年代和1980年代的密度估计数，因此有可能评估特定大小的密度是否发生了变化，以及任何变化是否与物理海洋学变化或其他环境变化（如海獭种群的变化）有关？将对过去20年中存活率的变化进行量化。可识别的地理模式，可以与温度，疾病，或捕食将被探索。更广泛的影响教育：该项目将增加学生参与研究的机会，主要是本科院校（维拉诺瓦）。学生将参与项目的各个方面：现场和实验室工作，数据分析，出版物的作者身份以及会议上的演讲。维拉诺瓦提供本科课程，场生态学和进化，其中包括一个扩展的基于领域的组件。该课程将于2008年开设，重点是北美太平洋潮间带生物群落和本研究中的重点实地考察点。此外，该项目产生的信息将通过加州科学院的“现在科学”方案与更广泛的受众分享。