Dissertation Research: Mechanisms and consequences of flexibility in mutualistic relationships

许多生物群落的基础是互惠关系，即一个相对较大、寿命较长的寄主有机体为共生伙伴提供栖息地，以换取生殖、能量和/或防御资源。由于有许多伙伴可用，伙伴选择的灵活性可以为宿主有机体提供与特定环境下的最佳伙伴相联系的多功能性。然而，它也引入了不同类型共生体之间的欺骗和竞争的可能性，这可能会从宿主那里夺走必要的资源，并导致宿主-共生体互惠关系的崩溃。珊瑚及其遗传多样性但功能相似的藻类共生体为更好地理解这些过程的生态平衡提供了一个特殊的模型系统。这项研究将测量各种实验室诱导的珊瑚-藻类组合的资源获取和交换，以确定寄主多种共生体类型对提供给珊瑚宿主的资源量是否有积极、消极或无效的影响。这项拟议的研究涵盖了多个学科的方法，包括分子生物学、碳化学、光化学和统计建模，以促进我们对基本生态相互作用的理解。这些生态模型将广泛适用于对陆地、淡水和海洋群落至关重要的宿主-共生共生关系，有助于这些地区的管理和养护。此外，通过与两名本科生的辅导和合作，将通过科学、课堂和公共平台传播互惠生态的重要性。这包括参加科学会议，为K-12教室编写教材，以及通过尼亚加拉水族馆进行外联工作。

At the foundation of many biological communities are mutualisms in which a relatively large, long-lived host organism provides habitat to symbiotic partners in return for reproductive, energetic and/or defensive resources. With many partnerships available, flexibility in partner selection can provide the host organism the versatility to associate with the optimal partner for a particular environment. However, it also introduces the potential for cheating and competition among different symbiont types, which may draw essential resources away from the host and cause a breakdown of the host-symbiont mutualism. Corals and their genetically diverse but functionally similar algal symbionts provide an exceptional model system to better understand the ecological balance of these processes. This research will measure resource acquisition and exchange for a variety of laboratory induced coral-algal combinations to determine whether hosting multiple symbiont types has a positive, negative or null affect on the amount of resources provided to the coral host. The proposed research encompasses methods from multiple disciplines, molecular biology, carbon chemistry, photochemistry and statistical modeling to advance our understanding of a fundamental ecological interaction. These ecological models will be broadly applicable to host-symbiont mutualisms that are essential to terrestrial, freshwater and marine communities, aiding in the management and conservation of these areas. In addition, through mentorship and collaboration with two undergraduate students, the importance of mutualism ecology will be communicated through scientific, classroom and public platforms. This includes attendance at scientific conferences, developing teaching materials for K-12 classrooms and outreach efforts through the Aquarium of Niagara.