Cold Corals in Hot Water - Investigating the Physiological Responses of Antarctic Coral Larvae to Climate change Stress

南极半岛西部正以全球最快的速度经历气候变化。加速的气候变化可能会影响许多生活在南极大陆架狭窄温度窗口内的底栖海洋无脊椎动物，其影响方式目前尚不清楚。然而，目前关于气候变化对冷水珊瑚敏感幼虫阶段的生理影响的数据很少，也没有关于生活在极端温度环境(如极地水域)的物种的数据。这个项目将收集非季节性的、孵化的斑潜蝇的幼虫，用于帕尔默站长达一个月的气候变化实验。将使用多学科技术结合电子显微镜、流式细胞术和电感耦合等离子体质谱仪来检测幼虫的发育和细胞应激。该项目的数据将形成对极地冷水珊瑚幼虫阶段的第一次系统研究，以及这些阶段如何在细胞和发育水平上受到温度胁迫的影响。冷水珊瑚已被证明是重要的生态系统工程师，为数千个相关物种提供栖息地，其中包括许多具有商业价值的物种。了解这些珊瑚的幼虫如何应对今天我们海洋中出现的变暖趋势，将使研究人员能够预测全球重要海底群落未来的变化。相关的教育和外联活动包括：1)通过让博士后和本科生参与该领域的研究计划，增加学生对极地研究的参与度；ii)通过研究网站、Twitter和当地的学校讲座提供信息，促进K-12的教与学计划；iii)通过同行评议发表的文献，使收集的数据可供更广泛的研究界使用；iv)通过在流行媒体、You Tube和其他流行媒体上的采访，以及通过与公众的本地讲座等方式，接触到更多的公众受众。

The Western Antarctic Peninsula is experiencing climate change at one of the fastest rates of anywhere around the globe. Accelerated climate change is likely to affect the many benthic marine invertebrates that live within narrow temperature windows along the Antarctic Continental Shelf in presently unidentified ways. At present however, there are few data on the physiological consequences of climate change on the sensitive larval stages of cold-water corals, and none on species living in thermal extremes such as polar waters. This project will collect the larvae of the non-seasonal, brooding scleractinian Flabellum impensum to be used in a month-long climate change experiment at Palmer Station. Multidisciplinary techniques will be used to examine larval development and cellular stress using a combination of electron microscopy, flow cytometry, and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectometry. Data from this project will form the first systematic study of the larval stages of polar cold-water corals, and how these stages are affected by temperature stress at the cellular and developmental level. Cold-water corals have been shown to be important ecosystem engineers, providing habitat for thousands of associated species, including many that are of commercial importance. Understanding how the larvae of these corals react to warming trends seen today in our oceans will allow researchers to predict future changes in important benthic communities around the globe. Associated education and outreach include: 1) Increasing student participation in polar research by involving postdoctoral and undergraduate students in the field and research program; ii) promotion of K-12 teaching and learning programs by providing information via a research website, Twitter, and in-school talks in the local area; iii) making the data collected available to the wider research community via peer reviewed published literature and iv) reaching a larger public audience through such venues as interviews in the popular media, You Tube and other popular media outlets, and local talks to the general public.