RUI: Ocean Acidification- Category 1- The effects of ocean acidification on the organismic biology and community ecology of corals, calcified algae, and coral reefs

RUI：海洋酸化 - 第 1 类 - 海洋酸化对珊瑚、钙化藻和珊瑚礁的有机生物学和群落生态的影响

• 批准号: 1041270
• 负责人: Robert Carpenter
• 金额: $ 199.27万
• 依托单位: The University Corporation, Northridge
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1041270&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Ocean; Acidification; Category; effects

This project is a 4-y effort focused on the effects of Ocean Acidification (OA) on coral reefs at multiple spatial and functional scales. The project focuses on the corals, calcified algae, and coral reefs of Moorea, French Polynesia, establishes baseline community-wide calcification data for the detection of OA effects on a decadal-scale, and builds on the research context and climate change focus of the Moorea Coral Reef LTER. The project goals will be attained by combining the skills of scientists with expertise in tropical algal ecophysiology and coral ecophysiology and will establish a post-doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate mentoring program to accomplish the field experimentation. The project addresses one of the most significant contemporary issues in marine science (OA), capitalizes on the research commitment of the NSF LTER program, and will help to ensure that the US maintains a pivotal role in the global effort to understand OA.Intellectual Merit. While coral reefs have undergone unprecedented changes in community structure in the past 50 y, they now may be exposed to their gravest threat since the Triassic. This threat is increasing atmospheric CO2, which equilibrates with seawater and causes ocean acidification (OA). In the marine environment, the resulting decline in carbonate saturation state (Omega) makes it energetically less feasible for calcifying taxa to mineralize; this is a major concern for coral reefs. It is possible that the scleractinian architects of reefs will cease to exist as a mineralized taxon within a century, and that calcifying algae will be severely impaired. While there is a rush to understand these effects and make recommendations leading to their mitigation, these efforts are influenced strongly by the notion that the impacts of pCO2 (which causes Omega to change) on calcifying taxa, and the mechanisms that drive them, are well-known. The investigators believe that many of the key processes of mineralization on reefs that are potentially affected by OA are only poorly known and that current knowledge is inadequate to support the scaling of OA effects to the community level. It is vital to measure organismal-scale calcification of key taxa, elucidate the mechanistic bases of these responses, evaluate community scale calcification, and finally, to conduct focused experiments to describe the functional relationships between these scales of mineralization.This project is a hypothesis-driven approach to compare the effects of OA on reef taxa and coral reefs in Moorea. The PIs will utilize microcosms to address the impacts and mechanisms of OA on biological processes, as well as the ecological processes shaping community structure. Additionally, studies of reef-wide metabolism will be used to evaluate the impacts of OA on intact reef ecosystems, to provide a context within which the experimental investigations can be scaled to the real world, and critically, to provide a much needed reference against which future changes can be gauged. Importantly, this proposal addresses several of the high priority recommendations of NSF-sponsored workshops and recent reviews of ocean acidification.Significance and Broader Impacts. The significance of this project lies in the current inability of the scientific community to accurately predict the effects of OA on coral reefs. The broader significance and impact of this research is to blend two approaches, a response of organisms to environmental chemistry versus ecological competition and multiple forcing at both organismal and community scales. The data also will provide a baseline for repeated investigations in the coming decades. In addition to conventional broader impacts including the mentoring of postdocs, graduate students, undergraduates, and technicians, CSUN is designated as an Hispanic-serving institution, which will ensure that the research will reach beyond the traditional demographics dominating scientific disciplines in the US. The labs of the co-PIs are integrated within a framework of K-12 education (including teachers and their students), and a mentoring program that forges interactions among children, university faculty, and graduate students. In the field, the Gump Research Station interacts with the Polynesian community through the At'itia cultural center that provides a locus for educational activities.

该项目是一项为期4年的工作，重点是海洋酸化在多个空间和功能尺度上对珊瑚礁的影响。该项目以法属波利尼西亚莫雷亚的珊瑚、钙化藻类和珊瑚礁为重点，建立了社区范围的基准钙化数据，用于检测十年尺度上的气候变化影响，并建立在莫雷亚珊瑚礁长期观测的研究背景和气候变化重点的基础上。该项目的目标将通过将科学家的技能与热带藻类生态生理学和珊瑚生态生理学的专业知识相结合来实现，并将建立一个博士后、研究生和本科生指导计划来完成现场实验。该项目解决了当代海洋科学(OA)中最重要的问题之一，利用了NSF LTER计划的研究承诺，并将有助于确保美国在理解海洋科学(OA)的全球努力中保持关键作用。尽管珊瑚礁在过去50年里经历了前所未有的群落结构变化，但它们现在可能面临着自三叠纪以来最严重的威胁。这一威胁是大气中二氧化碳的增加，它与海水平衡，导致海洋酸化(OA)。在海洋环境中，由此导致的碳酸盐饱和状态(Omega)的下降使得钙化类群在能量上不太可能矿化；这是珊瑚礁的一个主要担忧。有可能在一个世纪内，礁石建筑师将不再作为矿化分类群存在，钙化藻类将受到严重损害。虽然人们急于了解这些影响并提出缓解这些影响的建议，但这些努力受到这样一个概念的强烈影响，即二氧化碳(导致欧米茄变化)对钙化分类群的影响及其驱动机制是众所周知的。调查人员认为，珊瑚礁上可能受到开放式学习影响的许多关键矿化过程知之甚少，目前的知识不足以支持将开放式学习的影响扩展到社区一级。重要的是要测量生物尺度的关键分类群的钙化作用，阐明这些反应的机制基础，评估群落尺度的钙化作用，最后进行有针对性的实验来描述这些矿化尺度之间的功能关系。本项目是一个假设驱动的方法，比较OA对Moorea珊瑚礁和珊瑚礁分类群的影响。公共政策研究所将利用微观世界来研究OA对生物过程的影响和机制，以及塑造群落结构的生态过程。此外，将利用对整个珊瑚礁新陈代谢的研究来评估开放式气候变化对完整的珊瑚礁生态系统的影响，以提供一个可将实验调查扩展到真实世界的背景，更重要的是，为衡量未来的变化提供一个亟需的参考。重要的是，这项提案解决了NSF赞助的研讨会和最近对海洋酸化的审查提出的几项高度优先的建议。该项目的意义在于，科学界目前无法准确预测OA对珊瑚礁的影响。这项研究的更广泛的意义和影响是融合了两种方法，即生物体对环境化学的反应与生态竞争，以及在有机体和群落尺度上的多重强迫。这些数据还将为未来几十年的反复调查提供基线。除了传统的更广泛的影响，包括指导博士后、研究生、本科生和技术人员，CSUN被指定为拉美裔服务机构，这将确保研究将超越主导美国科学学科的传统人口统计学。联合PIs的实验室被整合在K-12教育(包括教师和他们的学生)的框架内，以及一个促进儿童、大学教师和研究生之间互动的指导计划。在实地，甘普研究站通过阿提亚文化中心与波利尼西亚社区进行互动，该中心为教育活动提供了场所。