Collaborative research: Ecology and functional biology of octocoral communities

最近的过去对珊瑚礁来说并不是好事，期刊上充斥着珊瑚礁覆盖率下降、鱼类数量锐减、大型藻类覆盖率上升以及未来可能充满粘液的例子。然而，珊瑚礁不仅仅是珊瑚和鱼类，它们最为人所知，它们的生物多样性受到其他生物群体的强烈影响。在匆忙评估珊瑚和鱼类的损失时，珊瑚礁的非珊瑚动物群被忽视了，这个项目将通过研究软珊瑚来补充正在进行的长期生态学研究。该项目将重点关注美国圣约翰珊瑚礁上的软珊瑚生态，以了解不断变化的世界中软珊瑚的过去、现在和未来的群落结构。过去，首席调查人员将完成对1992年至今圣约翰以及自1960年S以来加勒比地区八珊瑚丰度的回顾分析。目前，他们将：(I)评估软珊瑚和珊瑚之间的时空变化，(Ii)测试与大型藻类竞争以及软珊瑚和珊瑚之间的竞争作为推动软珊瑚丰度上升的过程所起的作用，以及(Iii)探索软珊瑚作为“动物森林”在改变其冠层下的物理条件从而调节补充动态方面的作用。对于未来，该项目将对主要的软珊瑚进行人口分析，以评估人口过程的年度变化，并预测受全球气候变化影响的未来人口。该项目将在多个教育层面产生更广泛的影响。在大学层面，该项目将对瑞安大学(CSUN)和一家领先的博士授予机构(布法罗大学)的学术环境质量产生影响。此外，它将为研究生的培训和研究提供独特的机会，以及通过现有的资金和REU补充资金为本科生提供参与实地考察的机会。自2006年以来，PI将建立在与美国圣约翰一所高中现有关系的基础上。我们将举办：(1)海洋生物俱乐部活动，通过教师、博士后研究助理和研究生的参与；(2)以软珊瑚生物学为重点的实验室机会；(3)美国教师到圣约翰工作的实地机会；以及(4)在家长和CSUN的支持下，将为当地学校的精选学生提供圣约翰实地考察。这些机会的影响范围将通过与洛杉矶县公立学校的两名教师进行新的合作来扩大。最后，在加勒比，在东道国海洋实验室建立的“生态营地”将用于与加勒比岛屿的儿童合作，提供侧重于生态和养护的教育经验。

The recent past has not been good for coral reefs, and journals have been filled with examples of declining coral cover, crashing fish populations, rising cover of macroalgae, and a future potentially filled with slime. However, reefs are more than the corals and fishes for which they are known best, and their biodiversity is affected strongly by other groups of organisms. The non-coral fauna of reefs is being neglected in the rush to evaluate the loss of corals and fishes, and this project will add on to an on-going long term ecological study by studying soft corals. This project will be focused on the ecology of soft corals on reefs in St. John, USVI to understand the Past, Present and the Future community structure of soft corals in a changing world. For the Past, the principal investigators will complete a retrospective analysis of octocoral abundance in St. John between 1992 and the present, as well as Caribbean-wide since the 1960's. For the Present, they will: (i) evaluate spatio-temporal changes between soft corals and corals, (ii) test for the role of competition with macroalgae and between soft corals and corals as processes driving the rising abundance of soft corals, and (iii) explore the role of soft corals as "animal forests" in modifying physical conditions beneath their canopy, thereby modulating recruitment dynamics. For the Future the project will conduct demographic analyses on key soft corals to evaluate annual variation in population processes and project populations into a future impacted by global climate change. The broader impacts of this project will be at multiple educational levels. At the university level, the project will have impacts on the quality of the academic environment at an RUI institution (CSUN) and a leading PhD-awarding institution (University of Buffalo). Additionally, it will provide unique opportunities for training and research by graduate students, as well as opportunities for undergraduate participation in fieldwork through existing funding and REU supplements. The PIs will build on an existing relationship with a high school in St. John, USVI since 2006. We will host: (1) marine biology club activities at the school through participation of faculty, a postdoctoral research associate and graduate students, (2) laboratory opportunities focused on the biology of soft corals, (3) field opportunities for teachers from the US to work in St. John, and (4) with the support of parents and CSUN, will offer a St. John field trip for select students from local schools. The reach of these opportunities will be broadened through new collaborations with two teachers based in the public schools of LA County. Finally, in the Caribbean established "ecocamps" at the host marine laboratory will be used to work with children from Caribbean islands to provide educational experiences focused on ecology and conservation.