A comprehensive survey of endosymbiotic and free-living Symbiodinium diversity in the corals and reef environments of Hawaii

珊瑚礁是世界上生物多样性最丰富、经济最重要和环境最敏感的海洋生境之一。珊瑚礁在气候变化面前生存的能力可能最终是由属于共生藻属的石珊瑚宿主和甲藻之间的内共生的持久性和灵活性驱动的。夏威夷群岛代表了一个广泛的，地理上孤立的和独特的珊瑚礁系统，其中共生藻的多样性几乎完全未被探索。在这个由海洋科学和EPSCOR支持的为期三年的项目中，盖茨博士将全面描述该地区内共生和自由生活的共生藻多样性。这将大大提高我们对这些共生藻群落的分类复杂性水平的理解。此外，在生态系统的多个隔间的多样性的比较将解决的特异性水平的内共生和生态系统内的栖息地分区的程度。采样设计的背景下，在夏威夷的热应力异常，这是一个强大的和全球相关的框架，探索温度历史如何塑造了整个群岛的共生藻的多样性的累积数量的空间变异。为了建立一个合理的解释框架，将使用新开发的分子标记完成多样性调查，该分子标记不是基因组内可变的，并且在共生甲藻进化枝C内提供了极好的系统发育分辨率。该项目完成后，将开始解决石珊瑚共生体是否有能力和生态环境，通过与珊瑚礁环境中自由生活的多样性池相互作用，改变其内共生群落，以适应气候变化。更广泛的影响珊瑚礁在稳定其周围的陆地和支持其所连接国家的经济方面发挥着关键作用。因此，最近珊瑚礁的健康状况因环境干扰日益频繁而下降，产生了深远的影响，关注这一问题的工作与社会有关。该研究将通过各种渠道传播：首先，它将在同行评审的文献中发表;在国家和国际科学会议上提出和讨论。 此外，在墨西哥、菲律宾、东非和澳大利亚的讲习班上，将与全球珊瑚礁目标研究能力建设项目合作，在世界银行（全球环境基金）的资助下，向国际学生和学者传授这里产生的方法和数据。& 这些方法和结果也将被纳入每年夏天由盖茨和其他人在HIMB教授的珊瑚技术研讨会的分子生物学中，并拥有国际学生和博士后。 研究结果将通过作为HIMB社区教育计划的一部分的非正式演讲传达给社区。 最后，这些数据将直接输入新开发的全球共生藻数据库和绘图网站，并通过该网站广泛传播。为了完成这个项目，一名博士后学者，一名研究生和一名本科生将加入PI在HIMB的积极和多样化的研究计划。PI和她的实验室是夏威夷EPSCoR的成员，这里详细介绍的工作将代表这一努力的进化遗传学推力领域的一个组成部分（http：//www.epscor.hawaii.edu/about.asp）。EPSCoR促进了盖茨实验室的学术互动，包括不同UH校区的科学家之间的思想交流，方法开发和研究实习，以及赠款提案和论文的开发。参与当前项目的人员成为高度互动和多样化的夏威夷EPSCoR网络的一个组成部分。盖茨实验室还与夏威夷的一些少数民族服务机构的教师和学生建立了良好的关系，包括修道院学校，Kamehameha学校，Punahou，太平洋佛教学院和Myron B。汤普森学院该项目的研究将在与夏威夷学校的互动以及在UH Manoa社区学院和本科生的客座讲座中展示。这项研究的重点是夏威夷的珊瑚礁，努力将我们工作的细节传递给如此多样化的受众，将促进人们对夏威夷面临的问题的认识。的珊瑚礁，并最终反映为改善整个国家的环境管理。

Coral reefs represent some of the most biologically diverse, economically important and environmentally sensitive marine habitats in the world. The capacity of reefs to survive in the face of climate change may ultimately be driven by persistence and flexibility in the endosymbioses between scleractinian hosts and dinoflagellates belonging to the genus Symbiodinium. The Hawaiian archipelago represents an extensive, geographically isolated and unique reef system in which the diversity of Symbiodinium is almost completely unexplored. In this three-year project, Supported by Ocean Sciences and EPSCOR, Dr. Gates will comprehensively describe the endosymbiotic and free-living Symbiodinium diversity in the region. This will dramatically improve our understanding of the levels of taxonomic complexity in these Symbiodinium communities. In addition, a comparison of the diversity in multiple compartments of the ecosystem will resolve the levels of specificity in the endosymbiosis and the extent of habitat partitioning within the ecosystem. The sampling design is contextualized by spatial variability in the cumulative number of the Thermal Stress Anomalies in Hawaii, which represents a powerful and globally relevant framework for exploring how temperature history has shaped the diversity of Symbiodinium across the Archipelago. To create a sound interpretation framework, the diversity surveys will be completed using a newly developed molecular marker that is not intra-genomically variable and that provides excellent phylogenetic resolution within Symbiodinium clade C. When complete, this project will begin to resolve whether scleractinian symbioses have the capacity and ecological context to adapt to climate change by modifying their endosymbiotic communities through their interactions with pools of free-living diversity in the coral reef environment. Broader ImpactsCoral reefs play a pivotal role in stabilizing the landmasses they surround and in supporting the economy of the countries they bound. As such, the recent declines in coral reef health in response to increasingly frequent environmental disturbances have profound ramifications and work focusing on this problem is relevant to society. The research will be disseminated through a variety of channels: first, it will be published in the peer reviewed literature; presented and discussed at national and international scientific conferences. In addition the methodologies and data generated here will be transferred to international students and scholars during intensive training sessions held in workshops in Mexico, Philippines, East Africa and Australia in collaboration with the Global Coral Reef Targeted Research & Capacity Building Project and funded by the World Bank (Global Environmental Fund). The methods and results will also be incorporated into the Molecular Biology of Corals Techniques Workshop taught by Gates and others at HIMB every summer, with an international pool of students and postdocs. The research results will be conveyed to the community through informal presentations given as part of Community Education Program at the HIMB. Lastly, the data will be ported directly into, and disseminated broadly via a newly developed Global Symbiodinium Database and Mapping Website. To complete this project, a postdoctoral scholar, a graduate student and an undergraduate will join the PI's active and diverse research program at HIMB. The PI and her lab are members of Hawaii EPSCoR and the work detailed here will represent a component of the Evolutionary Genetics Thrust area of this endeavor (http://www.epscor.hawaii.edu/about.asp). EPSCoR facilitated academic interactions in the Gates Lab involve the exchange of ideas among scientists at different UH campuses, methodological development and research internships, and the development of grant proposals and papers. The personnel involved in the current project with become an integral part of the highly interactive and diverse Hawaii EPSCoR network. The Gates Lab also has a well-developed relationship with the teachers and students of a number of minority serving institutions in Hawaii including the Priory School, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou, the Pacific Buddhist Academy, and the Myron B. Thompson Academy. The research in this project will be showcased in both interactions with the Hawaiian schools and in guest lectures presented to community colleges and undergraduate at UH Manoa. The research is focused on the coral reefs of Hawaii and efforts to transfer the details of our work to such a diverse set of audiences will promote awareness of the issues facing Hawaii?s coral reefs and ultimately reflect as improved environmental stewardship across the state.