Effects of ocean climate change on recruitment of kelp populations

海藻栖息在地球海洋边缘的狭窄地带，但它们维持着地球上一些最多样化和最多产的生态系统。然而，尽管进行了50多年的密集野外和实验室研究，但关于决定海带种群动态的过程以及随后对相关群落的多样性和生产力的影响，仍有许多需要了解。这在很大程度上是由于这样一个事实，即调控海带系统生产力、动态和多样性的过程取决于不同的海带物种在生态和进化时间尺度上如何与环境变异性相互作用。面对迫在眉睫的海洋气候变化，个别海带类群将如何应对海洋温度上升或营养物质减少？本项目将采用实验室和田间研究相结合的方法，了解温度和营养物质变化对海带配子发生、受精和孢子体招募的交互影响。该项目将使用来自加利福尼亚州、不列颠哥伦比亚省、澳大利亚、墨西哥、南非和智利的9个海带分类群来测试这些特征的当地适应模式和系统发育模式，并了解种群所经历的压力水平是否决定了区域耐受模式。该项目将把研究活动纳入莫斯登陆海洋实验室的一门新课程，并让学生参与实验室和实地研究。这些活动将帮助学生发展良好的实验室技能，并促进批判性思维的发展，因为它与海藻生活史、生活史进化的概念模型和气候变化的生态影响的比较分析有关。

Kelps inhabit a narrow band of the Earth's ocean margins, yet they sustain some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet. Despite over 50 years of intensive field and laboratory research, however, much remains to be understood about the processes that determine the dynamics of kelp populations, and the subsequent consequences for the diversity and productivity of their associated communities. This limitation is due largely to the fact that processes regulating kelp system productivity, dynamics, and diversity are determined by how different kelp species interact with environmental variability over ecological and evolutionary timescales. In the face of imminent ocean climate change, how will individual kelp taxa respond to rising ocean temperatures or decreasing nutrients? This project will use a combination of laboratory and field studies to understand interactive effects of changing temperature and nutrients on gametogenesis, fertilization, and sporophyte recruitment of kelp. This project will use 9 kelp taxa from California, British Columbia, Australia, Mexico, South Africa, and Chile to test for local adaptation vs. phylogenetic patterns in these traits and to understand whether the level of stress experienced by a population determines regional tolerance patterns. The project will integrate research activities into a novel curriculum at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory and will involve students in laboratory and field studies. These activities will help students to develop good laboratory skills and facilitate the development of critical-thinking as it pertains to the comparative analysis of kelp life histories, conceptual models of life history evolution, and ecological implications of climate change.