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

合作研究：海洋酸化和珊瑚礁：规模依赖性和适应能力

• 批准号: 1415300
• 负责人: Kevin Gross
• 金额: $ 9.99万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1415300&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Ocean; Acidification; Coral

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.

标题：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重点关注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、最美丽的生态系统——珊瑚礁中的问题。 该研究以法属波利尼西亚莫雷阿岛为模型系统，并以 NSF 对莫雷阿岛珊瑚礁长期生态研究站 (LTER) 的投资为基础，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 将如何影响珊瑚、钙化藻和珊瑚礁生态系统。 该项目以为期四年的 NSF 奖项为基础，涉及五个新方向的研究：(1) 持续一年的实验，(2) 对 20 米深度的珊瑚礁进行研究，(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而改变的能力，以提高其对 OA 的抵抗力，以及 （5）应用新兴理论将个体生物体的研究与整个珊瑚礁的研究结合起来。 通过更好地了解OA对珊瑚礁的影响，将产生更广泛的影响，珊瑚礁是展示气候变化对海洋环境影响的典型代表，为生活在沿海地区（包括美国）的数百万人提供收入、食物和海岸保护。 此外，该研究还将在多个层面产生广泛的连锁效应，涉及公众对气候变化影响的认识，以及培养专注于科学、技术、工程和数学 (STEM) 职业的美国劳动力队伍。 这些效果将通过在加州州立大学北岭分校 (CSUN) 为期 4 年的西班牙裔服务校园进行研究来实现，该校园的本科生将通过课堂教学和本科生研究经验 (REU) 机会积极参与该项目，并将支持博士后、研究生和技术人员机会。 正在进行的一项高中参与计划将扩大到莫雷阿岛的 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，并以现有 4 年期奖项的研究成果计划为基础，并与通过莫雷阿岛珊瑚礁 (MCR) LTER 提供的技术、硬件和信息基础设施紧密结合。 MCR-LTER 为合作研究 OA 对珊瑚礁的影响提供了无与伦比的机会，该地点可以说比世界上任何其他珊瑚礁都拥有更好的仪器和更详细的生态细节研究。 因此，研究结果既可以通过高度的生态和物理相关性来背景化，又可以很容易地融入到新兴理论中，该理论旨在预测未来海洋中更温暖、更酸性的珊瑚礁的结构和功能。 现有奖项涉及莫雷阿岛的一项研究计划，该计划主要关注珊瑚和钙化藻类的短期有机和生态反应、在中生态系统和水槽中进行的实验以及珊瑚礁规模钙化的测量。 这项新奖项涉及三项新技术进展：首次在复制的室外水槽中进行长达一年的实验；将使用复制的水下水槽对完整的珊瑚礁生态系统进行二氧化碳处理；复制的常见花园栽培技术将用于探索对 OA 条件反应的物种内遗传变异。 这些工具将共同用于支持三个主题领域的珊瑚和钙化藻类研究：(1) 测试 OA 对生长、性能和适应性的长期（1 年）影响；(2) 测试 OA 对 20 米深度的珊瑚礁群落的深度依赖性影响，与浅水相比，这里的光照状况减弱；(3) 测试通过内在的物种内遗传变异和遗传变异对 OA 的有益反应。 表型可塑性。 这些主题领域的一些关键实验将旨在利用积分投影模型（IPM）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对珊瑚礁生物体及其所建立的群落功能的规模依赖性影响。