RAPID Collaborative Research: Tracking coral reef impacts of the 2014/2015 El Nino event

RAPID 合作研究：追踪 2014/2015 年厄尔尼诺事件对珊瑚礁的影响

• 批准号: 1446402
• 负责人: Ruth Gates
• 金额: $ 11.59万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1446402&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Tracking; coral

As anthropogenic climate change intensifies, coral reefs face growing threats from associated decreases in ocean pH and increases in ocean temperature. While such stressors increase steadily through time, coral reefs also experience natural climate extremes, such as El Niño events, that rapidly reshape reef structure and function over a period of months. The El Niño event forecast for 2014/2015 presents the opportunity to study how such events affect coral reef ecosystems. This research will identify which species are most resilient to high temperature stress, and determine whether the presence of specific types of algal endosymbionts in the corals is predictive of the capacity of their coral hosts to survive temperature stress. By studying the reefs at remote sites with documented gradients in human use and pollution, the investigators will be able to tease apart the influence of El-Nino induced temperature changes from local impacts on the reef. This information will ultimately help to identify which components of the coral reef ecosystem are most vulnerable and provide a prognosis for the survival of different types of corals and endosymbionts in a warming world. This project focuses on reefs at Christmas Island (2N, 157W) - a site that is predicted to be heavily affected by warming during El Niño. In September 2014, roughly 3 months prior to peak El Niño warming, the investigators will install an array of ocean monitoring equipment around Christmas Island. During that field trip, they will also conduct extensive ecological surveys of the reef, collect coral, water and sediment samples for the analysis of Symbiodinium communities that will be analyzed at the University of Hawaii using high throughput sequencing approaches, and characterize ocean geochemistry at both windward and leeward sites on Christmas Island. These activities will be repeated in subsequent trips during peak El Niño conditions, and post El Niño conditions, to allow the investigators to monitor the acute responses of the environment and ecosystem and their near-term recovery, respectively. During the last trip, they will drill several coral colonies to assess how the corals record such a large thermal stress in terms of skeletal morphological and skeletal geochemistry changes.

随着人为气候变化的加剧，珊瑚礁面临着海洋 pH 值下降和海洋温度上升带来的日益严重的威胁。虽然这些压力因素随着时间的推移而稳步增加，但珊瑚礁也会经历自然气候极端事件，例如厄尔尼诺事件，这些事件会在几个月内迅速重塑珊瑚礁的结构和功能。 2014/2015 年厄尔尼诺事件预报提供了研究此类事件如何影响珊瑚礁生态系统的机会。这项研究将确定哪些物种对高温应激最有抵抗力，并确定珊瑚中特定类型藻类内共生体的存在是否可以预测其珊瑚宿主在温度应激下生存的能力。通过研究偏远地区的珊瑚礁，记录人类使用和污染的梯度，研究人员将能够区分厄尔尼诺现象引起的温度变化和当地对珊瑚礁的影响。这些信息最终将有助于确定珊瑚礁生态系统的哪些组成部分最脆弱，并为不同类型的珊瑚和内共生体在变暖的世界中的生存提供预测。该项目重点关注圣诞岛（北纬 2 度，西经 157 度）的珊瑚礁 - 预计该地点将在厄尔尼诺现象期间受到变暖的严重影响。 2014 年 9 月，即厄尔尼诺现象变暖高峰前大约 3 个月，研究人员将在圣诞岛周围安装一系列海洋监测设备。在那次实地考察期间，他们还将对珊瑚礁进行广泛的生态调查，收集珊瑚、水和沉积物样本以分析共生藻群落，这些样本将在夏威夷大学使用高通量测序方法进行分析，并描述圣诞岛迎风和背风地点的海洋地球化学特征。这些活动将在厄尔尼诺现象高峰期间和厄尔尼诺现象过后的后续旅行中重复进行，以便研究人员分别监测环境和生态系统的急性反应及其近期恢复。在最后一次旅行中，他们将钻探几个珊瑚群落，以评估珊瑚如何在骨骼形态和骨骼地球化学变化方面记录如此大的热应力。