LTREB Renewal: Ecosystem response to climate change - role of ecological subsidies and species interactions

“气候变化”这个简单的短语包含了范围广泛的事件，包括异常严重的风暴、意外的冻结或热浪、疾病流行、外来物种的入侵以及温度的长期升高、降水的变化或海平面的上升。该项目将收集居住在岩石潮间带海岸线的生物的长期数据，以了解关键物种如何单独和集体地应对这种高度多样化的扰动。人类依靠沿海生态系统来获取食物、娱乐和审美，因此了解这些生态系统未来将如何变化的重要性日益凸显。这项研究将吸引高中生、本科生和研究生进行实地研究，向他们介绍丰富的自然历史世界。结果将与当地管理机构共享，如Siuslaw流域委员会，以及俄勒冈州鱼类和野生动物部，以帮助管理俄勒冈州？海洋储备制度。公众参与包括最近西海岸研究人员和当地企业之间的伙伴关系，以提高公众对沿海栖息地发生变化的认识。俄勒冈州岩石潮间带栖息地的长期数据表明，贻贝、海带和藤壶等关键物种正在对气候变化的多个方面做出反应。该项目将继续跟踪这些物种和相关生物，以确定物种对变暖加剧、更强烈的风暴、海平面上升以及这些因素更大变化的持续反应趋势。在俄勒冈海岸的六个研究地点进行的长达26年的研究将被扩展，并对长期数据进行分析，以确定物种丰度在响应气候驱动变化的空间变化：a)营养物质（如藻类）、颗粒食物（如贻贝）和幼虫（如贻贝、海星、藤壶）的输入；B)严重风暴造成的损失；c)响应物种间相互作用的变化（如促进或捕食等积极和消极影响）。新的重点将放在赭色海星上，这是一种标志性的梯形掠食者，2014年由于疾病流行，其数量急剧下降。实地研究将确定相关物种（猎物、竞争对手）对这种减少的反应，海星是否会反弹到以前的水平，以及恢复或未能恢复对整个群落的后果。通过综合30多年的数据，最终的结果将是对一个重要生态群落的详细了解，它可能如何变化，以及它的恢复能力，或从环境扰动中反弹的能力。

The simple phrase 'climate change' encompasses a wide range of events, including unusually severe storms, unexpected freezes or heat waves, disease epidemics, and invasions of exotic species along with chronically increasing temperature, changes in precipitation, or rising sea levels. This project will assemble long-term data for organisms inhabiting a rocky intertidal coastline to understand how key species respond individually and collectively to this highly diverse suite of perturbations. Humans depend on coastal ecosystems for food, recreation, and aesthetics, amplifying the importance of understanding how these ecosystems will change in the future. The research will engage high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in field research, introducing them to the rich world of natural history. Results will be shared with local management agencies, such as the Siuslaw Watershed Council, as well as with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to help manage Oregon?s marine reserve system. Public engagement includes a recent partnership between West Coast researchers and local businesses to elevate public awareness of changes occurring in coastal habitats. Long-term data gathered for Oregon rocky intertidal habitats indicate that key species such as mussels, kelps, and barnacles are responding to multiple aspects of climate change. This project will continue to follow these species and associated organisms to determine sustained trends of species responses to increased warming, more intense storms, rising sea level, and greater variation in these factors. Research extending back as far as 26 years at a set of six study sites along the Oregon coast will be extended and the long-term data analyzed to determine how species abundances vary in space in response to climate-driven variation a) in inputs of nutrients (e.g., algae), particulate food (e.g., mussels), and larvae (e.g., mussels, sea stars, barnacles); b) in losses driven by severe storms; and c) in response to changing interactions among species (e.g., positive and negative effects such as facilitation or predation). A new focus will be on the ochre sea star, an iconic keystone predator that experienced a dramatic decline in abundance in 2014 due to a disease epidemic. Field research will determine how associated species (prey, competitors) will respond to this reduction, whether or not the sea star will rebound to previous levels, and what the consequences of recovery or failure to recover will be for the entire community. With synthesis of over 30 years of data, the final outcome will be a detailed understanding of an important ecological community, how it is likely to change, and its resilience, or ability to rebound from environmental perturbations.