Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: Scale Dependence and Adaptive Capacity

标题：合作研究：海洋酸化与珊瑚礁-规模依赖和适应能力本项目关注海洋生态系统面临的最严重威胁——海洋酸化（OA），并解决地球上最多样化、最美丽的生态系统——珊瑚礁的问题。该研究利用法属波利尼西亚的Moorea作为模型系统，并利用美国国家科学基金会对Moorea珊瑚礁长期生态研究站点（LTER）的投资，利用珊瑚礁的物理和生物监测作为研究项目的背景，重点研究OA对珊瑚、钙化藻类和珊瑚礁生态系统的影响方式。该项目建立在一个为期四年的国家科学基金会奖的基础上，研究了五个新的方向：(1)为期一年的实验；(2)对20米深度的珊瑚礁进行研究；(3)对水下珊瑚礁进行二氧化碳处理的实验；(4)测量珊瑚礁生物通过进化和诱导反应改变的能力，以提高它们对OA的抵抗力；(5)将新兴理论应用于个体生物和整个珊瑚礁的耦合研究。通过更好地了解OA对珊瑚礁的影响方式，将产生更广泛的影响。珊瑚礁是气候变化对海洋环境影响的典型代表，为包括美国在内的沿海地区数百万居民提供收入、食物和沿海保护。此外，这项研究将在多个层面上产生广泛的连锁效应，这些层面与公众对气候变化影响的认识有关，并为专注于科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）职业的美国劳动力做好准备。这些效果将通过在加州州立大学北岭分校（CSUN） 4年的西班牙裔服务校园进行研究来实现，本科生将通过课堂教学和本科生研究经验（REU）机会参与该项目，并将支持博士后，研究生和技术人员机会。一项正在进行的高中参与计划将扩展到Moorea的K-12教育工作者，并整合当地学校和CSUN之间的课程计划。该项目重点关注海洋酸化对热带珊瑚礁的影响，并建立在现有4年奖励的研究成果项目的基础上，并与Moorea珊瑚礁（MCR） LTER提供的技术、硬件和信息基础设施密切相关。MCR-LTER提供了一个无与伦比的机会，可以与珊瑚礁合作研究OA对珊瑚礁的影响，该珊瑚礁的位置可以说比世界上任何其他珊瑚礁都有更好的仪器和更详细的生态研究。因此，这些结果既可以通过高度的生态和物理相关性来背景化，也可以很容易地整合到新兴理论中，以寻求预测未来更温暖和更酸性海洋中珊瑚礁的结构和功能。现有的奖项包括在Moorea的一个研究项目，该项目主要关注珊瑚和钙化藻类的短期有机体和生态反应，在中生态系统和水槽中进行的实验，以及珊瑚礁尺度钙化的测量。这项新奖项涉及三项新的技术进步：首次将在复制的室外水槽中进行为期一年的实验；将利用复制的水下水槽对完全完整的珊瑚礁生态系统进行二氧化碳处理；和复制的普通园林栽培技术将用于探索对OA条件响应的种内遗传变异。这些工具将共同用于支持对珊瑚和钙化藻类在三个主题领域的研究：(1)测试OA对生长、性能和适合度的长期（1年）影响，(2)测试OA对20米深度珊瑚礁群落的深度依赖效应，与浅水相比，那里的光照条件较弱，(3)测试通过内在的、物种内的遗传变异和表型可塑性对OA的有益反应。这些主题领域的一些关键实验将被设计为利用积分投影模型（IPMs）将生物体与群落反应耦合起来，并支持使用生态学代谢理论（MTE）来解决OA对珊瑚礁生物影响的规模依赖性及其建立的群落功能。

Title: Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs - Scale Dependence and Adaptive CapacityThis project focuses on the most serious threat to marine ecosystems, Ocean Acidification (OA), and addresses the problem in the most diverse and beautiful ecosystem on the planet, coral reefs. The research utilizes Moorea, French Polynesia as a model system, and builds from the NSF investment in the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research Site (LTER) to exploit physical and biological monitoring of coral reefs as a context for a program of studies focused on the ways in which OA will affect corals, calcified algae, and coral reef ecosystems. The project builds on a four-year NSF award with research in five new directions: (1) experiments of year-long duration, (2) studies of coral reefs to 20-m depth, (3) experiments in which carbon dioxide will be administered to plots of coral reef underwater, (4) measurements of the capacity of coral reef organisms to change through evolutionary and induced responses to improve their resistance to OA, and (5) application of emerging theories to couple studies of individual organisms to studies of whole coral reefs. Broader impacts will accrue through a better understanding of the ways in which OA will affect coral reefs that are the poster child for demonstrating climate change effects in the marine environment, and which provide income, food, and coastal protection to millions of people living in coastal areas, including in the United States. Additionally, the research will have broad-reaching and cascading effects at multiple levels associated with public awareness of climate change effects, and the preparation of an American workforce focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. These effects will be realized by basing the research in a 4-year, Hispanic-serving campus California State University Northridge (CSUN) where undergraduates will have strong involvement in the project through classroom instruction and Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) opportunities, and postdoctoral, graduate, and technical staff opportunities will be supported. An ongoing program of high school involvement will be extended to include K-12 educators in Moorea, and integration of lesson plans between local schools and CSUN.This project focuses on the effects of Ocean Acidification on tropical coral reefs and builds on a program of research results from an existing 4-year award, and closely interfaces with the technical, hardware, and information infrastructure provided through the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER. The MCR-LTER, provides an unparalleled opportunity to partner with a study of OA effects on a coral reef with a location that arguably is better instrumented and studied in more ecological detail than any other coral reef in the world. Therefore, the results can be both contextualized by a high degree of ecological and physical relevance, and readily integrated into emerging theory seeking to predict the structure and function of coral reefs in warmer and more acidic future oceans. The existing award has involved a program of study in Moorea that has focused mostly on short-term organismic and ecological responses of corals and calcified algae, experiments conducted in mesocosms and flumes, and measurements of reef-scale calcification. This new award involves three new technical advances: for the first time, experiments will be conducted of year-long duration in replicate outdoor flumes; CO2 treatments will be administered to fully intact reef ecosystems in situ using replicated underwater flumes; and replicated common garden cultivation techniques will be used to explore within-species genetic variation in the response to OA conditions. Together, these tools will be used to support research on corals and calcified algae in three thematic areas: (1) tests for long-term (1 year) effects of OA on growth, performance, and fitness, (2) tests for depth-dependent effects of OA on reef communities at 20-m depth where light regimes are attenuated compared to shallow water, and (3) tests for beneficial responses to OA through intrinsic, within-species genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity. Some of the key experiments in these thematic areas will be designed to exploit integral projection models (IPMs) to couple organism with community responses, and to support the use of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) to address scale-dependence of OA effects on coral reef organisms and the function of the communities they build.