OCE-RIG: Changes in Herbivore-Algal Interactions in Kelp Forest Ecosystems in Response to Ocean Acidification

海带森林生态系统为商业和休闲渔业提供食物，支持生物多样性，促进沿海社区的旅游业。在这个项目中，研究者将通过研究影响幼小海带生存的生态过程来研究加速的环境变化如何影响海带森林生态系统和沿海群落。研究结果可能有助于海带林生态系统的管理，因为风暴频率和强度的增加提高了影响幼嫩海带（即草食）生存的过程在未来海带林的恢复和持续中的重要性。此外，来自STEM中代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生的培训机会也被纳入研究计划。该项目的总体目标是确定海水温度和碳酸盐化学如何共同影响各种无脊椎食草动物与巨藻（Macrocystis pyrifera）早期生活史阶段之间的相互作用。在海带森林生态系统中，当种群必须从微观阶段重建时，食草动物可以限制幼海带的生存。在预计扰动（例如风暴和极端事件）增加的未来情景中，海带林的恢复动态可能特别重要。当两者结合起来时，变暖和海洋酸化可以大大减少海带早期生活史阶段的生存，从而增加草食在高二氧化碳世界中调节海带森林恢复和动态的重要性。这个项目将检查加利福尼亚海流海带森林的底栖生物群落，这是一个快速酸化的地区。采用因子实验室实验，测试未来温度和CO2情景对巨藻早期生活史阶段多种草食性物种的人均和种群相互作用强度的影响。还将测试变暖和海洋酸化对M. pyrifera营养品质和适口性的影响，这可能间接影响相互作用强度。

Kelp forest ecosystems provide food for commercial and recreational fisheries, support biodiversity, and promote tourism in coastal communities. In this project, the investigator will examine how accelerating environmental changes could affect kelp forest ecosystems and coastal communities by studying the ecological processes influencing the survival of young kelp. Research results may contribute to management of kelp forest ecosystems as increased storm frequency and intensity elevates the importance of processes affecting the survival of young kelp (i.e., herbivory) in the recovery and persistence of future kelp forests. In addition, training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups in STEM are integrated into the research plan.The overall objective of this project is to determine how seawater temperature and carbonate chemistry combine to affect the interactions between a wide range of invertebrate herbivores and the early life history stages of giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera. In kelp forest ecosystems, herbivores can limit survival of juvenile kelp following disturbances when populations must reestablish from microscopic stages. Recovery dynamics in kelp forests may be especially important in future scenarios with projected increases in disturbances (e.g., storminess and extreme events). When combined, warming and ocean acidification can substantially reduce the survival of early life history stages of kelp thereby increasing the importance of herbivory in regulating kelp forest recovery and dynamics in a high CO2 world. This project will examine benthic communities from kelp forests in the California Current, an area of rapid acidification. Using a factorial laboratory experiment, the effects of future temperature and CO2 scenarios on per capita and per population interaction strengths of a wide range of herbivore species on the early life history stages of the giant kelp will be tested. The the effects of warming and ocean acidification on the nutritional quality and palatability of M. pyrifera will also be tested, which could indirectly affect interaction strengths.