Collaborative research: Quantifying the biological, chemical, and physical linkages between chemosynthetic communities and the surrounding deep sea

深海提供食物、能源、新型药物和材料，在全球碳循环、浅水沃茨营养补充和生物多样性维持方面发挥着重要作用。尽管深海对全球海洋生态系统的更大运作作出了重要贡献，但人们对这一广阔区域及其社区与海洋其他部分之间的联系只有粗略的了解。冷泉是甲烷和其他化学物质释放的海底活跃区，是世界各地沿着大陆边的主要特征。为了描述甲烷渗漏群落如何与周围生态系统相互作用，反之亦然，研究小组将研究哥斯达黎加太平洋沿岸甲烷渗漏周围的影响范围，这是一个甲烷释放极其活跃且氧气水平低的海洋区域。该项目将使用一种新的三维框架，结合生物调查和沿着海底的移植实验以及水柱的垂直特征，绘制这些生境周围的结构和化学性质。这将包括测量进入水柱的甲烷通量以及上覆碳酸盐化学和氧气水平的变化，这对于了解变暖、氧气流失和海洋酸化对海洋群落的影响至关重要。这些研究将有助于评估渗漏影响范围的大小，并展示这些渗漏在深海和更大的全球海洋生态系统中的作用。研究人员将在圣地亚哥地区的一系列研讨会上与一群教师分享这些信息，在桦树水族馆的互动展览中，并通过艺术家Lily Simonson的作品，他将参加游轮并分享她对这些环境的印象，在她的作品的巡回展览中。化学合成生态系统与更广泛的世界海洋生物群落和全球生物地球化学循环有着千丝万缕的联系，科学家们刚刚开始了解这种联系。这项研究将查明甲烷渗漏与周围深海生态系统之间的物理、化学和生物联系的形式、程度和性质。该研究建立了对结构和功能过程的重要理解，这些过程支撑着化学合成生态系统提供的生态系统服务。这项研究将在哥斯达黎加的太平洋大陆边缘进行，那里的甲烷命运和动态在区域海洋学背景中发挥重要作用。研究人员将在三维海洋学框架内使用定量取样和操纵研究来解决以下问题：（1）在从渗漏生境通过生态交错带到背景深海的过渡过程中，不同大小类别和营养位置的生物的多样性和密度函数的形状是什么？(2)深度、溶解氧浓度、pH值和碳酸盐离子的可用性、流体通量的相对速率和基质（生物、自生碳酸盐、沉积物）如何改变这些与周围深海的联系和相互作用。不同的过渡社区和生物模式的密度和α和β多样性的证据将被量化，并放置在一个全球的地理环境。所有这些调查将发生在生物大小谱：微生物（古生菌，细菌，微真核生物），大型动物和巨型动物，形成生物栖息地。研究结果将结合全球海洋变化对赤道太平洋的潜在影响加以解释，以确定随着未来人类活动的影响，与周围深海的联系将如何改变。研究人员将以三种不同的方式传达他们的结果。首先，该团队将与教育公平、评估和卓越教学研究中心（CREATE）合作，帮助初中和高中教师开发用于教授国家下一代科学标准的科学实践的工具和策略。主要研究人员将与斯克里普斯桦树水族馆的科学传播专家合作，展示他们在新探险中的研究巡航！展品。该展览将向公众介绍与深海科学巡航和研究相关的计划，准备，发现的兴奋和样品分析过程，同时培训科学传播方面的研究生。最后，艺术家Lily Simonson将描绘甲烷渗漏的科学及其在海上（和陆地上）向背景系统的过渡，通过社交媒体和课堂演示和展览与K-12学生互动。

The deep ocean supplies food, energy, novel drugs and materials, and plays essential roles in the global cycling of carbon, the nutrient replenishment for shallow waters, and the maintenance of biodiversity. Despite the crucial contribution of the deep sea to the larger functioning of global marine ecosystems, there is only a cursory understanding of this vast region and the connectivity among its communities and the rest of the oceans. Cold seeps, active areas of the seafloor where methane and other chemicals are released, are key features along the continental margins worldwide. To characterize how methane seep communities interact with the surrounding ecosystems and vice versa, the research team will study the sphere of influence around methane seeps off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a region of the ocean with extremely active methane release and low oxygen levels. This project will map the structure and chemistry surrounding these habitats using a novel 3-dimensional framework, combining biological surveys and transplant experiments along the seafloor with vertical characterizations of the water column. This will include measurements of methane flux into the water column and changes in the overlying carbonate chemistry and oxygen levels that are critical to understanding the effects of warming, oxygen loss and ocean acidification on marine communities. Together, these studies will help evaluate the size of the seep sphere of influence, and also demonstrate the role of these seeps within the deep sea and the greater, global, marine ecosystem. The researchers will share this information with a group of teachers during a series of workshops in the San Diego area, at an interactive exhibit at the Birch Aquarium, and through the work of an artist, Lily Simonson, who will participate in the cruises and share her impressions of these environments in a traveling exhibit of her work. Chemosynthetic ecosystems are inextricably linked to the broader world-ocean biome and global biogeochemical cycles in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. This research will identify the form, extent, and nature of the physical, chemical, and biological linkages between methane seeps and the surrounding deep-sea ecosystem. The research builds critical understanding of the structural and functional processes that underpin the ecosystem services provided by chemosynthetic ecosystems. This study will be conducted on the Pacific continental margin of Costa Rica where methane fates and dynamics play a significant role in the regional oceanographic setting. The researchers will use quantitative sampling and manipulative studies within a 3-dimensional oceanographic framework to address the following questions: (1) What are the shapes of the diversity and density functions for organisms of different size classes and trophic position over the transition from the seep habitat through the ecotone to the background deep sea? (2) How do depth, dissolved oxygen concentrations, pH and carbonate ion availability, relative rates of fluid flux, and substrate (biogenic, authigenic carbonate, sediments) alter these linkages and interactions with the surrounding deep sea. Evidence for distinct transitional communities and biotic patterns in density and alpha and beta diversity will be quantified and placed in a global biogeographic context. All of these investigations will occur across biological size spectra: for microorganisms (archaea, bacteria, microeukaryotes), the macrofauna, and the megafauna that form biogenic habitats. Research results will be interpreted in the context of potential effects of global ocean change in the equatorial Pacific to determine how the linkages with the surrounding deep sea will be altered as anthropogenic impacts proceed in the future. The researchers will communicate their results in three distinct ways. First, the team will collaborate with the Center for Research on Educational Equity, Assessment and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) to help middle and high school teachers develop tools and strategies for teaching the science practices of the national Next Generation Science Standards. The principal investigators will work with science communication specialists at Birch Aquarium at Scripps to showcase their research cruise in the new Expedition! exhibit. This exhibit will introduce the public to the planning, preparation, thrill of discovery, and process of sample analysis associated with deep-sea scientific cruises and research, while training graduate students in science communication. Finally, artist Lily Simonson will paint the science of methane seeps and their transition to background systems at sea (and on land), engage with K-12 students through social media and in-class presentations and exhibits.