LTER: MCR II - Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem

知识价值：Moorea珊瑚礁(MCR)LTER是一个跨学科的研究和教育项目，成立于2004年，旨在探索气候和干扰对珊瑚礁结构和功能的联合影响。研究区域是法属波利尼西亚莫雷亚岛周围的礁石复合体。(MCR I)最初的重点是促进对调节生态系统功能、塑造群落结构和多样性以及确定组成种群的丰度和动态的过程的主要控制的理解。LTER调查人员在此基础上采用了统一的概念框架(US LTER 2007)，并开发了一套研究主题来组织MCR II研究计划并促进跨站点合作。珊瑚礁生态系统似乎特别容易受到与全球气候变化相关的非生物驱动因素变化的影响(GCC)。这两种机制与大气中二氧化碳浓度升高有关：温室效应导致的海水温度升高，以及被称为海洋酸化(OA)的海水化学变化。在过去十年中，在这些与气候有关的驱动因素对珊瑚礁的相对重要性方面，发生了范式转变。最初的重点是海水温度上升，因为它引发了几次大规模、明显的珊瑚漂白(即内共生生物丧失)事件。现在人们普遍认识到，气候变化及其与气温上升的相互作用有可能导致更全面的变化。这些驱动因素是在其他压力(例如捕鱼)和脉冲(例如风暴)扰动的背景下发生的。在第一次气候变化报告期间，一次短暂的棘冠海星暴发导致莫雷亚前礁上的几乎所有珊瑚死亡，使与状态变化、复原力(恢复)、相互作用效应和间接级联有关的问题成为首要问题。MRC LTER团队将在MCR II中解决的基本问题是：在不同空间和时间尺度上运作的驱动因素如何相互作用，以影响珊瑚礁生态系统的结构和功能？该项目包含三个组织主题：(I)驱动因素之间的交互影响，(Ii)结构-功能联系产生的间接影响，以及(Iii)与结构-功能反馈有关的韧性和阻力。气候变化报告第二次会议的六个目标是：(A)继续建立关于物理驱动因素、社区动态和生态系统进程的长期数据集；(B)维持一项长期复原力实验；(C)促进了解全球气候变化驱动因素将如何影响珊瑚礁，以及哪些因素影响抵抗力和复原力；(D)发展和测试一般生态学理论；(E)继续改进我们的信息管理系统，以更充分地满足长期气候变化研究网络和更广泛的科学界的需要；更广泛的影响：珊瑚礁不仅在生态上很重要--它们每年产生超过3750亿美元的商品和服务(其中大部分在发展中国家)，容易受到人类活动和气候强迫的影响。因此，这项研究对世界各地的资源管理者、政策制定者和利益相关者具有现实意义和应用价值。教育活动产生的更广泛影响包括博士后指导、结合本科生和研究生培训的研究、朝着种族多元化的MCR学生社区取得进展、K-12教师积极参与MCR研究、将MCR研究结果纳入教学课程、MCR教职员工和研究生参与三海方案，以及主要是本科生和少数族裔服务机构的教职员工和学生的参与。通过外联努力实现了其他影响，包括与三所服务于社会经济弱势群体和少数族裔学生的当地学校建立伙伴关系，以及与莫雷亚阿提亚中心建立伙伴关系，以帮助塔希提亚人。虽然这个信息丰富的网站将继续是一个主要的外联门户网站，但调查人员计划与另一个以网络为基础的实体发展伙伴关系，以中学生为目标。

Intellectual Merit: The Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER is an interdisciplinary research and education program that was established in 2004, to explore the joint effects of climate and disturbance on the structure and function of coral reefs. The study area is the reef complex that surrounds the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. The initial focus of (MCR I) was to advance understanding of major controls of processes that modulate ecosystem function, shape community structure and diversity, and determine abundance and dynamics of constituent populations. The LTER Investigators build on this foundation by adapting a unifying conceptual framework (US LTER 2007) and developing a set of research themes to organize the MCR II research program and facilitate cross-site collaboration. Coral reef ecosystems appear especially vulnerable to changes in abiotic drivers associated with Global Climate Change (GCC). These arise from two mechanisms related to increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2: rising seawater temperature due to greenhouse warming, and changing seawater chemistry known as Ocean Acidification (OA). A paradigm shift occurred within the past decade regarding the relative importance of these climate-related drivers to coral reefs. The focus initially was on rising seawater temperature because it triggered several large-scale, conspicuous coral bleaching (i.e., loss of the endosymbiont Symbiodinium) events. There now is widespread recognition that OA and its interaction with rising temperature have the potential to cause even more sweeping changes. These drivers occur against a backdrop of other press (e.g., fishing) and pulse (e.g., storms) perturbations. During MCR I, a brief outbreak of crown-of-thorns seastars (COTS) resulted in the death of virtually all coral on the fore reef of Moorea, bringing issues related to state change, resilience (recovery), interactive effects and indirect cascades to the forefront. The fundamental question that the MRC LTER Team will address in MCR II is:How do drivers that operate over different spatial and temporal scales interact to influence the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems?The project incorporates three organizing themes: (i) interactive effects among drivers, (ii) indirect effects arising from structure-function linkages, and (iii) resilience and resistance in relation to structure-function feedbacks. The six goals of MCR II are to: (a) continue building long-term datasets on physical drivers, community dynamics and ecosystem processes; (b) maintain a long-term resilience experiment; (c) contribute to understanding of how Global Climate Change drivers will affect coral reefs and what factors influence resistance and resilience; (d) develop and test general ecological theory; (e) continue to improve our information management system to more fully meet the needs of the LTER network and broader scientific community; and (f) enhance our outreach components.Broader Impacts: Coral reefs are not just ecologically important - they yield upwards of $375 billion annually in goods and services (most of it in the developing world) that are vulnerable to human activities and climate forcing. Hence this research has relevance and application to resource managers, policy makers and stakeholders worldwide. Broader impacts arising from the educational activities include postdoctoral mentoring, research that integrates undergraduate and graduate training, progress towards an ethnically diverse MCR student community, active participation of K-12 teachers in MCR research, incorporation of MCR findings in teaching curricula, participation of MCR faculty and graduate students in the Three Seas Program, and involvement of faculty and students from predominately undergraduate and minority-serving institutions. Additional impacts are realized by outreach efforts, including partnerships with three local schools that serve socio-economically disadvantaged and minority students, and with the Atitia Center on Moorea to reach Tahitians. While the information-rich web site will continue to be a primary outreach portal, the investigators plan to develop a partnership with another web-based entity to target middle-school students.