Spatial variability of larval fish in relation to their prey and predator fields: Patterns and interactions from cm to 10s of km in a subtropical, pelagic environment

背景：远洋海洋环境中生物的空间格局具有重要的生态意义，尤其是对鱼类幼虫而言。不均匀的猎物和捕食者环境会导致捕食者-猎物相互作用的变化，从而导致幼鱼生长和存活的变化。事实证明，这些问题在本质上很难解决，这在很大程度上是由于所涉及的空间尺度范围广泛，以及同时对各种过程进行充分采样所面临的技术挑战。本研究将使用新技术（原位浮游鱼成像系统- ISIIS）同时测量幼鱼与猎物、浮游捕食者和佛罗里达海峡物理环境之间的精细分布。这将与有针对性的精细网取样和个体最近每日幼虫生长的分析相结合。通过对一系列高分辨率的水团进行采样，本研究将解决以下具体假设：i)聚集和斑块的驱动因素，以及ii)精细尺度上捕食者-猎物相互作用的生物学后果。智力价值：这项研究的主要智力价值是前所未有地在小鱼、猎物和捕食者之间的生物相互作用的尺度上对浮游生物过程进行了研究。这项实地研究将进一步加深我们对捕食者-猎物相互作用对幼虫生长和死亡模式的空间明确的理解。对亚热带浮游食物网的关注将增强对这些未被充分研究的远洋生态系统的科学认识，并为与高纬度地区的远洋食物网动态的比较分析提供有价值的数据。随着海洋经历重大环境变化，在一系列空间和时间尺度上对远洋浮游生态系统的深入了解变得越来越重要。例如，胶状生物相对优势地位的大幅增加，有可能导致远洋食物网发生重大变化。更好地了解这种食物网的精细相互作用将有助于社会预测和应对这种变化的后果。更广泛的影响：该项目将涉及传统的教育和培训方法，以及一些非传统的努力，以扩大研究的更广泛影响。该研究将培养本科生和研究生以及一名博士后，重点是跨学科研究，将生物和物理海洋学结合起来，并强调图像分析。指导将包括侧重于改进科学传播和向公立学校中代表性不足的人群伸出援手。通过与公民科学联盟（CSA）合作，将本研究中的ISIIS图像整合到Zooniverse的“浮游生物之窗”网络项目中，这是一项吸引广大受众的独特努力，该项目将使用志愿者公民科学家来帮助分析研究期间生成的广泛图像数据库。最后，该项目将为浮游生物科学界提供先进的图像分析能力，以及一个永久的、完整的数字图书馆，其中包含浮游生物和幼虫分布的地理参考数据。

Background:The spatial pattern of organisms within pelagic marine environments is of significant ecological importance, and this is particularly true for larval fishes. Patchy prey and predator environments should lead to variation in predator-prey interactions, and thus to variations in larval fish growth and survival. These have proven very difficult to resolve in nature, due in large part to the broad range of spatial scales involved and technological challenges with adequately sampling the various processes simultaneously. This study will use new technology (In Situ Ichthyoplankton Imaging System - ISIIS) to simultaneously measure the fine-scale distribution of larval fishes in relation to their prey, their planktonic predators, and the physical environment of the Straits of Florida. This will be combined with targeted fine-scale net sampling and analyses of individual recent daily larval growth. By sampling a series of water masses at very high resolution, this study will address specific hypotheses concerning: i) the drivers of aggregations and patchiness, and ii) the biological consequences of predator-prey interactions at fine scales.Intellectual Merit :The primary intellectual merit of the study is the unprecedented examination of plankton processes at scales of relevance to biological interactions among larval fishes, their prey, and their predators. This field study will further our understanding of the predator-prey interactions contributing to spatially explicit larval growth and mortality patterns. The focus on subtropical planktonic food webs will enhance scientific knowledge of these understudied pelagic ecosystems and provide valuable data for comparative analyses with pelagic food web dynamics at higher latitudes. A deeper understanding of pelagic planktonic ecosystems over a range of spatial and temporal scales is increasingly important as the oceans undergo major environmental changes. Substantial increases in the relative dominance of gelatinous organisms, for example, have the potential to cause major shifts in pelagic food webs. A better understanding of the fine-scale interactions of such food webs will help society anticipate and respond to the consequences of such changes.Broader Impacts :The project will involve traditional education and training approaches, as well as several non-traditional efforts to extend the broader impact of the study. The study will train undergraduate and graduate students and a post-doctoral fellow, with a focus on interdisciplinary research, integrating biological and physical oceanography with an added emphasis on image analysis. Mentoring will include a focus on improvement in scientific communication and outreach to under-represented populations in public schools. A unique effort to engage a broad audience will draw on a partnership with Citizen Science Alliance (CSA) by incorporating ISIIS imagery from this study into a Zooniverse "Window on Plankton" web-based project, which will use volunteer citizen scientists to help analyze the extensive imagery database generated during the study. Finally, this project will provide advanced image analysis capabilities to the plankton science community, as well as a permanent, complete digital library of positively identified, geo-referenced data on plankton and larval distribution.