Collaborative Research: Intertidal community assembly and dynamics: Integrating broad-scale regional variation in environmental forcing and benthic-pelagic coupling

缅因州湾（GoM）的岩石潮间栖息地提供了一个模型系统来研究自然群落的结构和动态。在整个缅因州湾，在这些栖息地中经常发现相同的物种，但群落结构，动态和生产力在3个不同的地区（南部，中部和北方墨西哥湾）之间存在显着差异。过去有影响力的工作，主要是在南部和中部的墨西哥湾，重点是当地的进程驱动潮间带社区结构，但产生了非常不同的概念模型，这些社区是如何结构化。本项目探讨了岩石海岸群落过程的区域差异是否是由温度和食物供应的区域变化和近海岸沿海海洋学形成的招聘差异所驱动的。该项目将增进对大规模环境力量如何与当地进程相互作用以控制物种分布以及这些群落的结构和动态的理解。了解在不同尺度上运行的过程之间的相互作用对于开发可用于预测社区动态的更可靠的模型至关重要。此外，该项目产生的数据将对具有重要商业价值的物种的区域动态以及对黑山政府内的生态系统和渔业管理产生重要影响。学生和博士后研究人员将得到支持和培训，作为这个跨学科项目的一部分。该项目的总体假设是，社区一级进程的区域差异是由几个关键物种中非常不同的种群连接和招募模式驱动的，这些差异最终是由温度和食物供应的区域变化引起的，并由物理幼虫运输过程介导。因此，该项目将通过操纵性实地实验、实地采样、连通性估计和综合建模来测试以下假设：1）在具有浮游幼虫净出口的地区（北方GoM），本地分散物种主导动态，而在具有高定居点和种群间广泛连通性的地区（南方GoM），具有浮游幼虫的物种主导动态。2)从北方到南方地区，具有浮游幼虫的物种的定居密度随着食物可利用性的区域变化而雅阁增加。3)人口的连通性各地区之间差异很大，与区域不同的程度，他们是自我播种或作为幼虫源与汇;自我播种导致相对本地化的人口动态在中部的墨西哥湾。4)种群连通性的模式是由物理传输过程驱动的，可以通过耦合基本幼虫行为模型与循环模型来表示。在墨西哥湾约600公里的18个不同地点，调查将评估补充、食物供应和次级生产力的变化，实验将评估波浪暴露和庇护生境的群落过程。该项目将利用水文、海流剖面和幼虫垂直分布调查，为耦合幼虫/环流模型收集数据。人口连接将建模和经验评估（一个物种）使用元素指纹。一个空间上明确的元城市模型将整合所有项目组成部分，并测试区域和地方进程在控制社区组织和动态方面的相对重要性。

Rocky intertidal habitats in the Gulf of Maine (GoM) provide a model system to examine the structure and dynamics of natural communities. Throughout the Gulf of Maine, the same species are often found in these habitats but community structure, dynamics and productivity differ markedly among 3 distinct regions (southern, central and northern GoM). Past influential work, conducted primarily in the southern and central GoM, focused on the local processes driving intertidal community structure but produced very different conceptual models of how these communities are structured. This project examines whether regional differences in rocky shore community processes are driven by differences in recruitment that are shaped by regional variation in temperature and food availability and nearshore coastal oceanography. This project will improve the understanding of how large-scale environmental forces interact with local processes to control the distribution of species and the structure and dynamics of these communities. Understanding the interaction between processes operating at different scales is fundamentally important to developing more reliable models that can be used to predict community dynamics. In addition, data resulting from this project will have important implications for regional dynamics in commercially important species and for ecosystem and fisheries management within the GoM. Students and postdoctoral researchers will be supported and trained as part of this interdisciplinary project. The overarching hypothesis of this project is that regional differences in community-level processes are driven by very different patterns of population connectivity and recruitment in a few key species and that these differences are ultimately caused by regional variation in temperature and food availability and mediated by physical larval transport processes. Hence, the project will test the following hypotheses with manipulative field experiments, field sampling, connectivity estimates, and integrative modeling: 1) Locally-dispersing species dominate dynamics in regions with a net export of planktonic larvae (Northern GoM), while species with planktonic larvae dominate the dynamics in regions with high settlement and extensive connectivity among populations (Southern GoM). 2) Settlement density of species with planktonic larvae increases from northern to southern regions in accord with regional variation in food availability. 3) Population connectivity varies greatly among regions, with regions differing in the degree to which they are self-seeded or serve as larval sources vs. sinks; self-seeding leads to relatively localized population dynamics in the middle portion of the GoM. 4) Patterns of population connectivity are driven by physical transport processes and can be represented by coupling basic larval behavior models with circulation models. At 18 different sites in the GoM across ~ 600 km, surveys will evaluate variation in recruitment, food availability and secondary productivity and experiments will assess community processes in wave-exposed and sheltered habitats. The project will use hydrographic, current profile, and larval vertical distribution surveys to collect data for coupled larval/circulation models. Population connectivity will be both modeled and empirically evaluated (for one species) using elemental fingerprinting. A spatially explicit metacommunity model will integrate across all project components and test the relative importance of regional and local processes in controlling community organization and dynamics.