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

职务名称：合作研究：海洋酸化和珊瑚礁-规模依赖性和适应能力该项目侧重于对海洋生态系统最严重的威胁，海洋酸化（OA），并解决地球上最多样化和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莫雷阿岛作为模型系统，并建立在美国国家科学基金会对莫雷阿珊瑚礁长期生态研究基地（LTER）的投资基础上，利用珊瑚礁的物理和生物监测作为研究计划的背景，重点研究OA将影响珊瑚，钙化藻类和珊瑚礁生态系统的方式。 该项目建立在为期四年的NSF奖的基础上，研究了五个新方向：（1）为期一年的实验，（2）对20米深的珊瑚礁进行研究，（3）将二氧化碳注入水下珊瑚礁的实验，（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，以及（5）应用新兴理论将个体生物的研究与整个珊瑚礁的研究结合起来。 通过更好地了解有机农业对珊瑚礁的影响方式，将产生更广泛的影响，珊瑚礁是海洋环境中气候变化影响的典型代表，为包括美国在内的沿海地区数百万人提供收入、食物和沿海保护。 此外，该研究将在与公众对气候变化影响的认识相关的多个层面上产生广泛和级联效应，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。 这些影响将通过在一个为期4年的研究，西班牙裔服务校园加州州立大学北岭（CSUN），本科生将通过课堂教学和本科生研究经验（REU）的机会，以及博士后，研究生和技术人员的机会将得到支持。 一个正在进行的高中参与计划将扩大到包括K-12教育工作者在莫雷阿岛，并整合当地学校和CSUN之间的课程计划。该项目侧重于海洋酸化对热带珊瑚礁的影响，并建立在现有的研究成果计划的基础上4年奖，并与技术，硬件，和通过莫雷阿珊瑚礁远程远程信息和实时通讯系统提供的信息基础设施。 MCR-LTER提供了一个无与伦比的机会，可以与OA对珊瑚礁影响的研究合作，该珊瑚礁的位置可以说是比世界上任何其他珊瑚礁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进行背景化，也可以很容易地融入新兴理论，以预测未来温暖和酸性更强的海洋中珊瑚礁的结构和功能。 现有的奖项涉及莫雷阿岛的一项研究计划，主要集中在珊瑚和钙化藻类的短期有机体和生态反应，在中型生态系统和水槽中进行的实验，以及对珊瑚礁钙化的测量。 这一新的奖项涉及三项新的技术进步：第一次，将在复制的室外水槽中进行为期一年的实验;将使用复制的水下水槽对完全完整的珊瑚礁生态系统进行CO2处理;复制的普通花园栽培技术将用于探索物种内遗传变异对OA条件的反应。 这些工具将共同用于支持三个专题领域的珊瑚和钙化藻类研究：（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 m深度处珊瑚礁群落的深度依赖性影响，其中与浅水相比，光照条件减弱，以及（3）测试通过内在，种内遗传变异性和表型可塑性。 这些专题领域的一些关键实验将被设计为利用积分投影模型（IPM）来耦合生物与社区的反应，并支持使用生态学的代谢理论（MTE）来解决OA对珊瑚礁生物的影响及其建立的社区的功能的规模依赖性。

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.