EAPSI: The Effect of Increased Ocean Temperatures on Species Diversity in Cauliflower Corals (Pocillopora spp.)

健康的珊瑚生态系统有利于岛屿国家，为旅游业提供可观的收入，并保护其海岸线免受海浪和风暴的侵蚀。此外，珊瑚礁支持其他分类群的高度多样性，因此维持珊瑚生态系统直接维持海洋生物多样性。珊瑚对热环境的变化很敏感，如果温度持续高于夏季最高值几度，它们的共生藻类就会离开它们的组织（珊瑚白化）。造礁珊瑚依靠这些共生体来满足很大一部分的代谢需求，如果温度持续升高，珊瑚就会死亡。最近的研究已经证明了利用自然实验来预测气候变化如何影响珊瑚礁的优点。中央研究院的陈朝伦博士成功地利用台湾南部核电厂出口附近的高温珊瑚礁，研究了长期温暖的海水对花椰菜珊瑚幼体多样性的影响。这个奖项支持陈博士的研究。他在两个地点检查了成年花椰菜珊瑚的多样性：一个靠近核电站，另一个远离正常水温。在这个自然实验中，将从两个地点收集组织样本，并对线粒体开放阅读框（ORF）进行测序。ORF区域将用于随后的系统发育分析，并将使用标准生物多样性指数比较站点之间的多样性。如果在温暖地点和常温地点，Pocillopora物种的相对比例不同，那么这将表明物种对温度升高的适应能力不同。在这些地点之间没有显著差异的poillopora珊瑚多样性将表明维持生理性能的其他机制（例如基因表达，替代藻类共生体或微生物差异）。由于该珊瑚属在全球分布，我们的研究结果将对台湾边界以外的珊瑚保护有用。该奖项由NSF与台湾科学技术部合作资助。

Healthy coral ecosystems are beneficial to island nations, providing significant revenue from tourism and protecting their coastlines from erosion due to wave action and storms. In addition, coral reefs support a high diversity of other taxa, and thus maintaining coral ecosystems directly sustains marine biodiversity. Corals are sensitive to changes in their thermal environment, with sustained increases of a few degrees above the summer maximum causing their algal symbionts to leave their tissues (coral bleaching). Reef-building corals rely on these symbionts for a large proportion of their metabolic needs, and if temperatures remain elevated the corals perish. Recent studies have demonstrated the merit of using natural experiments to predict how climate change could affect reefs. Dr. Chaolun Allen Chen of Academia Sinica, has successfully used a high temperature reef site near the outlet of a nuclear power plant in Southern Taiwan to investigate the effects of chronic warm waters on juvenile cauliflower coral (Pocillopora spp.) diversity. This award supports research under Dr. Chen?s mentorship that builds on this work by examining the diversity of the adult cauliflower corals at two sites: one near the nuclear power plant and one farther away with normal water temperatures.For this natural experiment, tissue samples will be collected from both sites, and the mitochondrial open reading frame (ORF) will be sequenced. The ORF regions will be used in subsequent phylogenetic analyses, and the diversity between sites will be compared using standard biodiversity indices. If the relative proportion of Pocillopora species differs between the warm site and the normal temperature site, then this would indicate differential resilience to increased temperatures between species. An absence of significant differences in Pocillopora coral diversity between these sites would point to other mechanisms for maintaining physiological performance (e.g. gene expression, alternate algal symbionts, or microbiomedifferences). Because this coral genus is globally distributed, our findings will be useful for coral conservation beyond the boundaries of Taiwan. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.