Collaborative Research--Microscopic Islands: Modeling the Theory of Island Biogeography for Aquatic Pathogens Colonizing Marine Aggregates

岛屿地理学理论是现代生态思想的基础，它被数百次引用来解释许多大小和地点的“岛屿”上的殖民序列和物种丰富度。这些应用绝大多数集中在大型生物（其中包括蜥蜴，鸟类和甲虫），而几乎忽略了微生物。在这个项目中，美国四所研究型大学--老自治领大学、格鲁吉亚大学、明尼苏达大学杜卢斯分校和康涅狄格大学--的研究人员将把这一理论更深入地应用于传染病生态学。他们认为，富含有机物的海洋和淡水聚集体（同义词包括：海洋雪，淡水雪，有机碎屑和生物絮凝物）作为水生环境中细菌的“微观岛屿”。理论？在这方面的相关性将通过开发的分析模型参数化的经验研究，在现场和实验室进行测试。研究团队采用三步走的方法，（微生物生态学家，传染病建模者，贝类生物学家/生理学家）一起将：（1）设计和实验测试应用于单个聚集体的岛屿生态学分析模型（“岛”）来预测细菌物种丰富度作为聚集体大小和距病原体点源的距离的函数（2）使用物种丰富度模型的输出构建并实验分析第二个数学模型，该模型考虑了聚集体微生物群落中致病物种的持久性。还将确定物种丰富度对持久性的任何影响（海洋聚集体中病原体的持久性）;（3）利用物种丰富度模型和病原体持久性模型提供的信息，通过基于物剂的模拟模型评估海洋聚集体与公共卫生之间的联系。主要研究人员的长期目标是为水生环境中的传染病研究带来社区一级的方法。这项拟议研究的更广泛影响是多方面的。所有四所参与大学的研究生将接受培训，两名博士后研究人员将得到支持和指导。此外，雄心勃勃的外联工作将为K-12年级的学生开发创新的、基于探究的教学材料。这些材料倡导传染病的基本生态原则，有助于填补这一专题可用资源的空白。这些机构每年接待30，000多名学童和教育工作者，为NSF传染病生态学项目提供了广泛而多样化的受众，以传播该项目的互动演示和活动，并在此过程中提高公众对科学的理解。

The theory of island biogeography, seminal to modern ecological thinking, has been invoked hundreds of times to explain colonization sequences and species richness on "islands" of many sizes and in many locations. These applications have overwhelmingly focused on macro-organisms (among them lizards, birds, and beetles) and practically ignored microorganisms. In this project investigators at four U.S. research universities -- Old Dominion University, University of Georgia, University of Minnesota at Duluth, and University of Connecticut -- will apply the theory more provocatively: to infectious disease ecology. They argue that organic-rich marine and freshwater aggregates (synonyms include: marine snow, freshwater snow, organic detritus, and bioflocs) serve as "microscopic islands" for bacteria in aquatic environments. The theory?s relevance in this context will be tested through development of analytical models parameterized by empirical studies in both field and laboratory. Using a three-step approach, the research team (microbial ecologists, infectious-disease modeler, shellfish biologist/ physiologist) together will: (1) Design and experimentally test an analytical model of island biogeography applied to individual aggregates ("islands") to predict bacterial species richness as a function of aggregate size and distance from a point source of pathogens (Species richness of marine aggregates); (2) Use the outputs from the species-richness model to construct and experimentally analyze a second mathematical model that considers the persistence of pathogenic species within the microbial communities of aggregates. The effects, if any, of species richness on persistence will also be determined (Pathogen persistence in marine aggregates); and (3) Apply information from the species-richness model and the pathogen-persistence model to evaluate links between marine aggregates and public health with an agent-based simulation model. The long-term goal of the principal investigators is to bring a community-level approach to studies of infectious diseases in aquatic environments. The broader impacts of this proposed research are many. Graduate students at all four participating universities will be trained, and two post-doctoral researchers will be supported and mentored. In addition, ambitious outreach efforts will develop innovative, inquiry-based teaching materials for students from grades K-12. These materials advocate basic ecological principles of infectious diseases, helping to fill a void in resources available for this topic. Between them, these institutions host more than 30,000 school children and educators annually, providing the NSF Ecology of Infectious Diseases program an immense and diverse audience for disseminating this project's interactive demonstrations and activities and in so doing, enhance the public understanding of science.