EAPSI: Determining the Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Fish Species that Live in Dynamic Estuaries

众所周知，海洋酸化对海洋鱼类物种有许多有害影响，特别是早期生命阶段。这些发现使人们重新关注早期发育的生理特征，这些特征可能会赋予骨性关节炎弹性。酸碱平衡就是这样一条途径。这个项目将调查海洋酸化对早期生命阶段的橙点石斑鱼(Epinephelus Coiodes)酸碱生理的影响，这种鱼是一种在亚洲各地很受欢迎的商业鱼类，在早期生命阶段栖息在河口。河口鱼类在OA研究中的比例一直偏低，但这些动物经常经历的二氧化碳水平超过了对气候变化的预测。我们预测，河口鱼类，如斑点石斑鱼，可能预先适应了对OA的适应能力。这项研究将与台湾台北中央研究院鱼类分子和综合生理学领域的著名教员黄炳鹏博士一起进行。这项研究将探讨橙点石斑鱼早期生命阶段酸碱生理学的发育和可塑性。早期生命阶段研究对于了解海洋生态系统对商业渔业的影响至关重要，因为这是从早期生命阶段向生殖成鱼补充的瓶颈。对OA的敏感性将通过分析存活、蛋黄大小和标准长度来衡量，这是二氧化碳升高的结果。酸碱的发展将通过测量关键蛋白质随时间和在不同二氧化碳浓度下的基因表达来分析。原位杂交和免疫荧光显微镜随后将确定基因或蛋白质表达的位置。总而言之，这些研究将确定橙点石斑鱼对OA的敏感性，以及酸碱生理学在赋予早期生命弹性方面的作用。该奖项由东亚和太平洋暑期学院项目资助一名美国研究生的暑期研究，由美国国家科学基金会和台湾科技部联合资助。

Ocean acidification (OA) is known to have many detrimental impacts on marine fish species, with early life stages being particularly susceptible. These findings have brought renewed focus onto physiological traits in early development that may bestow resilience to OA. Acid-base balance is one such pathway. This project will investigate the impacts of ocean acidification on the acid-base physiology of early life stage orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coiodes), which is a popular commercial fish throughout Asia and inhabits estuaries during early life stages. Estuarine fish have been underrepresented in OA research, yet these animals regularly experience CO2 levels in excess of those predicted for climate change. We predict that estuarine fish, such as the spotted grouper, may be pre-adapted for resilience against OA. The research will be conducted with Dr. Pung-Pung Hwang, a noted faculty member in the field of fish molecular and integrative physiology, at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.This study will investigate the development and plasticity of acid-base physiology in early life stages of the orange-spotted grouper. Early life stage studies are critical for understanding the impacts of OA on commercial fisheries because this represents a bottleneck to recruitment from early life stages to reproductive adults. Sensitivity to OA will be measured via analysis of survival, yolk size and standard length, as a consequence of elevated CO2. Acid-base development will be analyzed by measuring gene expression of key proteins over time and under varying CO2 concentrations. In situ hybridization and immunofluorescence microscopy will subsequently determine the location of gene or protein expression. Together these studies will determine the sensitivity of orange-spotted grouper to OA and the role of acid-base physiology in conferring early life resilience. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan.