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

生态学家最终试图理解群落结构、物种多样性和群落组合模式的原因，面临的挑战是将低频率发生的大尺度过程（如气候强迫、区域物种库的输入等）的影响与较小空间尺度上运行的生物和非生物过程的更长期影响整合起来。这一挑战在海洋底栖生物群落中尤其重要，因为许多物种的浮游生物幼虫在沉降到海底之前会分散在上面的水柱中。因此，局部栖息地斑块的成虫组合受到各种全球和区域过程的影响，从盆地范围内运输幼虫的洋流到厄尔尼诺事件期间海洋温度升高的直接影响。这项探索性研究小额赠款（SGER）的研究人员将通过调查当前厄尔尼诺现象对加拉帕戈斯海洋保护区潮下生态系统功能的影响，研究大规模过程对当地海洋群落的影响。这个SGER项目建立在美国国家科学基金会最初资助的关于加拉帕戈斯群岛岩石潮下带上升流效应的研究基础上。在那里，上升流通过招募一种重要的猎物物种（藤壶），将自下而上（食物、营养）和自上而下（掠食性）的力量联系起来。此外，对厄尔尼诺前4-6年的物理和生物变量进行了监测，为厄尔尼诺后的比较奠定了基础。更广泛的影响包括通过将大尺度的海洋-大气耦合现象与当地海洋群落动态联系起来，增加我们对气候变化对海洋生态影响的理解。研究结果将用于加拉帕戈斯群岛海洋保护区。教育方面的影响包括为两名研究生和一名本科生提供海洋生态学培训。其中一名研究生是少数族裔女性

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