SGER: Effects of the 2006-2007 El Nino on ecosystem functioning in the Galapagos Marine Reserve: Impact and Resistence

对于生态学家来说，最终试图理解群落结构、物种多样性和群落聚集格局的原因的挑战是整合大范围过程(即气候强迫、来自区域物种池的输入等)的影响。发生频率较低，在较小的空间尺度上运行的生物和非生物过程的慢性影响较大。这一挑战在海洋底栖动物群落中尤其相关，在那里，许多物种的浮游幼虫在落入海底之前分散在上面的水柱中。因此，当地栖息地中的成虫群落受到各种全球和区域过程的影响，从盆地范围的海流运输幼虫到厄尔尼诺事件期间海洋温度上升的直接影响。这一探索性研究小额赠款(SGER)的调查人员将通过调查当前厄尔尼诺对加拉帕戈斯海洋保护区潮下生态系统功能的影响来研究大规模过程对当地海洋群落的影响。这一SGER项目建立在美国国家科学基金会资助的关于加拉帕戈斯岩石潮下带上升流效应的初步研究的基础上，在那里已经证明，上升流通过招募重要的猎物物种(藤壶)自下而上(食物、营养物质)和自上而下(捕食)的力量。此外，在厄尔尼诺现象发生前的4-6年期间，对物理和生物变量进行了监测，为厄尔尼诺现象发生后的比较奠定了基础。更广泛的影响包括通过将大范围的海洋-大气耦合现象与当地海洋界的动态联系起来，增加我们对气候变化对海洋的生态影响的了解。这项研究的成果将用于加拉帕戈斯海洋保护区。教育影响包括对两名研究生和一名本科生进行海洋生态学培训。其中一名研究生是一名代表性较低的少数民族女性

The challenge for ecologists ultimately trying to understand the causes of patterns of community structure, species diversity and community assembly is to integrate the influences of large- scale processes (i.e. climatic forcing, input from regional species pool, etc.) occurring at low frequencies with the more chronic effects of biotic and abiotic processes operating on smaller spatial scales. This challenge is particularly relevant in marine benthic communities where many species have planktonic larvae that disperse in the overlying water column before they settle to the bottom. Consequently, adult assemblages in a local patch of habitat are influenced by a variety of global and regional processes from basin wide currents transporting larvae to direct impacts of elevated ocean temperature during El Nino events. The investigators of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will study the effects of large-scale processes on local marine communities by investigating the impacts of the present El Nino on the functioning of subtidal ecosystems in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. This SGER project builds on initial NSF funded research on upwelling effects in the rocky subtidal zone of the Galapagos where it has been demonstrated that upwelling links bottom up (food, nutrients) and top down (predatory) forces via recruitment of an important prey species (barnacles). Moreover, physical and biotic variables have been monitored during 4-6 years of pre-El Nino conditions, setting the stage for post-El Nino comparisons. Broader impacts include increasing our understanding of ecological effects of climate change in the ocean by linking coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon on large scales to local marine community dynamics. The results of this research will be used Galapagos Marine Reserve. Educational impacts include training in marine ecology for two graduate students and one undergraduate student. One of the graduate students is an underrepresented minority female