Ecology of injury in marine sedimentary habitats: Effects of repeated injury on infaunal condition and sediment bioturbation

大部分洋底是沉积的，海洋沉积物在海洋中营养物质和有机物的流动中起着关键作用。生活在海洋沉积物中的生物通过其摄食和其他活动，通过加工和重新分配来自水柱的有机物并影响营养物的供应，从而影响底栖-远洋耦合。这些活动也影响招聘和竞争互动。因此，影响动物活动的因素会次生影响沉积物生物地球化学和底栖生物群落。身体组织的非致命性损失是多毛动物等海洋动物的常见事件，许多研究已经调查了伤害对个体的直接影响，并预测了对海洋软沉积物栖息地生态相互作用的间接影响。要准确预测伤害对海洋动物群落的影响，就需要知道动物生物受伤的频率，受伤的个体是否能够再生，以及它们再生的速度。但是，全面、准确地评估软体动物的受伤率是很困难的，因为目前的方法只计算了明显再生组织的个体，低估了受伤率。过去的损伤可能被某些物种的快速再生所掩盖。研究总结&智力优势：本项目将采用一种新颖的方法，结合实地调查，使用组织学染色来回答几个重要的生态学问题：海洋蠕虫受伤的频率有多高？伤害的发生在时间和空间上有多大的变化？受伤的频率是否有物种差异？在三年的春季和夏季期间，将在缅因州的两个地点重复对动物伤害的调查。该项目还将研究重复损伤对动物的影响，这是一个在很大程度上被忽视的损伤方面。关于沉积物活动、再生状态和动物营养状况的综合测量很少。实验室实验将比较反复伤害对不同功能群的生存、生长、繁殖力、营养状况和沉积物干扰的影响，这些功能群包括蛛形多毛藻（再生速度快的浅管栖界面沉积物取食动物）、maldanid多毛藻（头朝下的管栖传送带取食动物）和沙粒多毛藻（头朝下的穴居动物，将地表沉积物俯冲到深处取食）。然后，该项目将使用在拟议的实验和调查中收集的数据来创建一个更现实的模型，以了解伤害对动物种群、沉积物生物扰动、招募和捕食者种群的相互作用。探讨了捕食强度对生物扰动和动物种群的影响。更广泛的影响：该项目包括通过与海洋科学教育卓越中心-海洋系统团队（COSEE-OS）合作，开发描述海洋生物与海洋沉积物和水柱过程联系方式的教育资源，努力提高全国的海洋科学素养。两名研究生和三名本科生将在海洋生物、生理学和生态学方面接受多样化的培训。所有参与者将与COSEE-OS教育专家合作，开发内容和教育活动，这些内容和活动将被添加到海洋、气候和海洋多样性的交互式概念图中。将向本科生和研究生介绍将他们在研究中获得的知识和经验转化为更大的关键概念的过程，并将其呈现给普通观众。教育活动将在PI的海洋科学课堂上进行测试，交互式概念图和海洋科学教育活动将由COSEE-OS通过互联网广泛分发。教材将符合海洋素养基本原则和国家科学教育标准。在缅因大学进行内部评估以评估学生的学习后，这些材料将由COSEE-OS广泛分发，并使用技术可用性和最终用户有效性的标准评估协议进行评估。通过直接与国家网络（COSEE）和已取得成功的国家海洋扫盲运动合作，我们可以确保我们的成果将覆盖广泛的学习者，包括那些传统上在海洋科学领域代表性不足的人。

The majority of the ocean floor is sedimentary, and marine sediments play a key role in the flux of nutrients and organic matter in the ocean. Via their feeding and other activities, organisms living in marine sediments influence benthic-pelagic coupling by processing and redistributing organic matter supplied from the water column and influencing the supply of nutrients. These activities also influence recruitment and competitive interactions. Thus, factors that impact infaunal activity can secondarily impact sediment biogeochemistry and benthic communities. Non-lethal loss of body tissue is a common event for marine infauna such as polychaetes, and numerous studies have investigated the immediate effects of injury on individuals and predicted indirect effects on ecological interactions in marine soft-sediment habitats. Accurate predictions of the effect injury has on marine infaunal communities require knowing the frequency at which infaunal organisms are injured, whether injured individuals can regenerate and the speed at which they do so. But comprehensive, accurate assessments of injury rates among soft-bodied infauna are difficult because current methods underestimate injury rates by counting only individuals that are visibly regenerating lost tissue. Past injury may be masked by rapid regeneration in some species.RESEARCH SUMMARY & INTELLECTUAL MERIT: This project will use a novel approach using a histological stain in conjunction with field surveys to answer several important ecological questions: How frequently are marine worms injured? How variable is the incidence of injury in space and time? Are there species differences in the frequency of injury? Surveys of infaunal injury will be repeated during the spring and summer months over three years at two sites in Maine. This project will also investigate the effect of repeated injury on infauna, an aspect of injury that has been largely ignored. Comprehensive measurements relating sediment activity, regeneration status and nutritional condition of infauna are rare. Laboratory experiments will compare the effect of repeated injury on survival, growth, fecundity, nutritional condition and sediment disturbance by different functional groups such as spionid polychaetes (shallow tube-dwelling interface deposit feeders with rapid regeneration rates), maldanid polychaetes (head-down tube-dwelling conveyor-belt feeders), and arenicolid polychaetes (head-down burrowers that subduct surface sediments to depth to feed). This project will then use the data gathered in the proposed experiments and surveys to create a more realistic model of the interacting effects injury has on infaunal populations, sediment bioturbation, recruitment, and predator populations. Effects of predation intensity on bioturbation and infaunal populations will be explored.BROADER IMPACTS: The project includes a significant effort to improve ocean science literacy across the nation by collaborating with the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence-Ocean Systems team (COSEE-OS) to develop educational resources describing the ways marine infauna link sediment and water column processes in the ocean. Two graduate students and three undergraduates will receive diverse training in marine organismal biology, physiology and ecology. All participants will work with COSEE-OS educational experts to develop content and educational activities that will be added to interactive concept maps of Oceans and Climate and Ocean Diversity. Undergraduate and graduate students will be introduced to the process of translating the knowledge and experience they gain during their research into larger key concepts to be presented to a general audience. Educational activities will be tested in the PI's marine science class and interactive concept maps and ocean science educational activities will be widely distributed by COSEE-OS via the internet. Materials will align with Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and National Science Education Standards. After internal evaluation at the University of Maine to evaluate student learning, the materials will then be widely distributed by COSEE-OS and evaluated using standard evaluation protocols for technology usability and end-user effectiveness. By working directly with both a national network (COSEE) and a national ocean literacy campaign with proven success, we can ensure that our deliverables will reach a broad spectrum of learners, including those traditionally underrepresented in ocean sciences.