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

对夏威夷珊瑚和礁石环境中内共生和自由生活的共生藻多样性的全面调查

• 批准号: 0752604
• 负责人: Ruth Gates
• 金额: $ 51.19万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-05-15 至 2012-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0752604&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: comprehensive; survey; endosymbiotic; free; living

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.

珊瑚礁代表着世界上一些最具生物多样性、经济重要性和环境敏感性的海洋生物栖息地。珊瑚礁在面对气候变化时的生存能力最终可能是由共生藻属内寄主和甲藻之间内共生的持久性和灵活性所驱动的。夏威夷群岛代表着一个广阔的、地理上孤立的独特的珊瑚礁系统，在这个系统中，共生动物的多样性几乎完全没有被开发。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生物的多样性。这将极大地提高我们对这些共生动物群落分类复杂性水平的理解。此外，对生态系统多个隔间的多样性进行比较，将确定内共生的特殊性水平和生态系统内栖息地划分的程度。抽样设计的背景是夏威夷热应力异常累积数量的空间变异性，这代表了一个强大的和全球相关的框架，用于探索温度历史如何塑造整个群岛的共生动物多样性。为了建立一个健全的解释框架，将使用一种新开发的分子标记完成多样性调查，该标记不具有基因组内变量，并在共生枝C内提供良好的系统发育分辨率。在完成时，该项目将开始确定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的相互作用，改变其内生共生群落，从而适应气候变化。更广泛的影响珊瑚礁在稳定它们周围的陆地和支持它们所束缚的国家的经济方面发挥着关键作用。因此，由于日益频繁的环境干扰，最近珊瑚礁健康状况的下降具有深远的影响，关注这一问题的工作与社会相关。这项研究将通过各种渠道传播：首先，将在同行评议的文献中发表；在国家和国际科学会议上介绍和讨论。此外，在墨西哥、菲律宾、东非和澳大利亚与全球珊瑚礁目标研究和能力建设项目合作、并由世界银行(全球环境基金)资助的讲习班上举办的强化培训班上，将把这里产生的方法和数据转移给国际学生和学者。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讲授的珊瑚分子生物学技术研讨会，有一个国际学生和博士后池。作为HIMB社区教育计划的一部分，研究成果将通过非正式演讲向社区传达。最后，这些数据将直接输入新开发的全球共生生物数据库和绘图网站，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国际和平研究所在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(http://www.epscor.hawaii.edu/about.asp).)的一个组成部分EPSCoR促进了盖茨实验室的学术互动，包括不同大学校区的科学家之间的思想交流，方法开发和研究实习，以及拨款提案和论文的制定。参与当前项目的人员将成为高度互动和多样化的夏威夷EPSCoR网络的组成部分。盖茨实验室还与夏威夷许多少数族裔服务机构的教师和学生建立了良好的关系，这些机构包括隐修学校、卡梅哈梅哈学校、普纳霍、太平洋佛教学院和迈伦·B·汤普森学院。该项目的研究将在与夏威夷学校的互动中以及在给社区学院和UH Manoa大学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，将我们工作的细节传递给如此多样化的受众的努力将促进人们对夏威夷S珊瑚礁面临的问题的认识，并最终反映为全州环境管理的改善。