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

深海为人类提供食物、能源、新型药物和材料，在全球碳循环、浅海养分补充和生物多样性维持等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功能做出了至关重要的贡献，但人们对这一广阔地区及其社区与其他海洋之间的连通性只有粗略的了解。冷渗漏是海底释放甲烷和其他化学物质的活跃区域，是全球大陆边缘的主要特征。为了描述甲烷渗漏群落如何与周围的生态系统相互作用，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含量低的海洋区域。该项目将利用新颖的三维框架，结合海底生物调查和移植实验以及水柱的垂直特征，绘制这些栖息地周围的结构和化学图谱。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、氧气损失和海洋酸化对海洋群落的影响至关重要。总之，这些研究将有助于评估渗漏影响范围的大小，并证明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组教师分享这些信息，在伯奇水族馆的一个互动展览上，通过艺术家莉莉·西蒙森的作品分享这些信息，莉莉·西蒙森将参加游轮活动，并在她的作品巡回展览中分享她对这些环境的印象。化学合成生态系统与更广阔的世界——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，而科学家们刚刚开始了解这种联系。这项研究将确定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、范围和性质。该研究建立了对化学合成生态系统提供的支撑生态系统服务的结构和功能过程的批判性理解。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力学在区域海洋学环境中起着重要作用。研究人员将在三维海洋学框架内采用定量采样和操作研究来解决以下问题：(1)从渗漏栖息地到过渡带到背景深海，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值和碳酸盐离子有效性、流体通量的相对速率和底物（生物源、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。在密度和α和β多样性方面的不同过渡性群落和生物模式的证据将被量化，并置于全球生物地理背景下。所有这些调查都将发生在生物大小光谱上：微生物（古生菌、细菌、微真核生物）、大型动物和形成生物栖息地的巨型动物。研究结果将在全球海洋变化对赤道太平洋的潜在影响的背景下进行解释，以确定随着未来人为影响的进行，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国家下一代科学标准的科学实践教学工具和策略。主要研究人员将与斯克里普斯伯奇水族馆的科学传播专家合作，在新的探险中展示他们的研究巡航！展览。本次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、发现的兴奋和样本分析过程，同时培养研究生的科学传播能力。最后，艺术家莉莉·西蒙森（Lily Simonson）将描绘甲烷渗漏的科学及其向海洋（和陆地）背景系统的过渡，并通过社交媒体和课堂演讲和展览与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.