RAPID Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Insights into salt marsh food webs from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill

学术价值：深水地平线漏油事件是一个意想不到的事件，代表着对沿海系统的重大干扰。我们对石油如何影响沿海湿地群落的理解是不完整的。特别是，我们对石油如何影响节肢动物食物网、石油暴露与社区反应之间的剂量-反应关系以及暴露后的长期恢复知之甚少。此外，这种新干扰的空间范围、严重性和持久性将为沿海湿地的功能提供新的见解。彭宁斯的实验室已经做好了充分的准备，可以研究这种新的干扰将如何影响沿海湿地群落。他的团队于2009年在从德克萨斯州到佛罗里达州的墨西哥湾沿岸和从佛罗里达州到缅因州的大西洋海岸的22个沿海湿地地点建立并采样了一项实验。这个快速项目将在2010年和未来几年对相同的地点和地块进行重新采样，以确定沿海食物网是如何受到影响和恢复的。PIS将检验以下假设：a)石油暴露将揭示食草性昆虫和蜗牛对盐沼植物有强烈的负面影响；b)石油暴露将揭示节肢动物食物网中“短暂”成员的重要性；c)石油暴露将与化肥和胡萝卜处理相互作用，影响节肢动物食物网。由于其空间范围和持续影响，漏油对沿海湿地构成了一种新的干扰。评估社区对这种干扰的反应将为食物网如何运作提供新的见解，从而加深对这一关键系统的理解。广泛的影响：盐沼为人类提供各种关键的生态系统服务。该项目提供的新的科学见解将有助于预测沿海湿地的未来状况，这些湿地受到海平面上升、富营养化和其他压力因素的威胁，如石油泄漏，包括这次美国历史上最大的石油泄漏。公众对沿海生态系统健康的兴趣非常浓厚，在深水地平线漏油事件发生后，记者们已经对彭宁斯进行了采访。这一快速项目的结果将引起媒体的极大兴趣。此外，该项目还将培养两名生态系统科学研究生和一名本科生。

Intellectual Merit:The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an unexpected event that represents a major disturbance to coastal systems. Our understanding of how oil affects coastal wetland communities is incomplete. In particular, we know little about how oil affects the arthropod food web, about dose-response relationships between oil exposure and community response, and about long-term recovery from exposure. Moreover, the spatial extent, severity and persistence of this novel disturbance will provide new insights into how coastal wetlands function. Pennings' laboratory is well poised to examine how this novel disturbance will affect coastal wetland communities. His group has set up and sampled an experiment in 2009 at 22 coastal wetland sites ranging along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida and the Atlantic Coast from Florida to Maine. This RAPID project will re-sample the same sites and plots in 2010 and future years to determine how the coastal food web is affected and recovers. The PIs will test the hypotheses that: a) oil exposure will reveal that herbivorous insects and snails have strong negative effects on salt marsh plants; b) oil exposure will reveal the importance of 'transient' members of the arthropod food web; c) oil exposure will interact with fertilizer and wrack treatments to affect the arthropod food web. Because of its spatial extent and persistent effects, the oil spill represents a novel disturbance to coastal wetlands. Evaluating community responses to this disturbance will provide new insights into how the food web functions, leading to a deeper understanding of this critical system.Broader impacts:Salt marshes provide a variety of critical ecosystem services to humanity. New scientific insights provided by this project will help predict the future condition of coastal wetlands, which are threatened by a combination of sea level rise, eutrophication, and other stressors such as oil spills, including this largest spill in U.S. history. Public interest in the health of coastal ecosystems is intense, and has already led to interviews of Pennings by journalists following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The results of this RAPID project will be of considerable media interest. In addition, the project will train two graduate students and one undergraduate in ecosystems science.