The energetic assembly of biological communities: a test with deep-sea woodfalls

气候变化下陆地和海洋碳产量的变化需要理解生态群落是如何通过碳有效性来构建的，碳有效性长期以来被认为是生物多样性的预测指标。最近的研究表明，全球海洋浮游植物产量可能以每年全球中位数的约1%的速度下降。区域尺度的变化更加不均匀；赤道太平洋在过去十年中经历了50%以上的总体下降，极地地区经历了类似幅度的增长。显然，迫切需要更全面地了解生物多样性和碳可得性之间的关系，以便更好地预测当前和即将到来的气候变化对海洋生态系统的影响。一个挑战是，自然系统中可用碳的决定因素多种多样，而且往往无法识别。深海中的木材群落是一个理想的实验系统，可以测试许多关于碳可利用性和生物多样性的理论。首先，社区可用的碳量可以以木材质量的形式精确控制。其次，木材在群落中的碳流可以很容易地追踪，因为由木材支撑的动物具有独特的化学特征，可以通过稳定的同位素分析来追踪。最后，可以对与森林砍伐有关的整个群落进行采样，从而准确估计生物多样性、生物量和能量流。由于这些原因，对深海木材的研究提供了准确和同步的定量，包括活立木蓄积量、多样性和营养结构作为能量可用性的函数。通过使用ROV/潜水部署的木材瀑布，该项目将测试碳可用性的变化如何影响海洋生物多样性。这个项目的成果将在几个方面有益于科学。首先，该项目对气候变化和生物多样性研究做出了重大贡献，特别是对未被充分开发的深海的了解。该项目还为公众宣传创造了丰富的机会。多方面的方法包括：使用网络播客和博客；透过摄影展览分享成果；并积极从少数族裔服务机构招聘，同时提供访问讲师。此外，该项目将在代表性不足的群体中招募和培训年轻科学家，并影响小学生、科学教师和普通公众等多个受众。该项目的目标是利用ROV/潜水部署的木材瀑布，确定调节群落结构的能量过程中的相互作用。木材将以不同的尺寸部署，以控制添加到社区的化学能的数量，并使用不同的木材密度来检查组装规则，同时检查资源的总量和集中度。这种方法将允许研究人员检查能量权衡，即可以同时评估不同碳可用性对生物多样性的多种影响、假设和理论。群落中的碳含量可以被精确地控制，这是对先前研究的一个改进。碳吸收速率对生态过程的影响也将在这里进行研究，但很少进行评估。这项研究还将揭示更多关于深海木材生物群落的信息，这是海洋中研究最少的系统之一。例如，该项目将揭示不同碳途径在出口木材能源和控制生物多样性方面的相对重要性。

Changes in both terrestrial and marine carbon production under climate change necessitate an understanding of how ecological communities are structured by carbon availability, which has long been recognized as a predictor of biodiversity. Recent research indicates global marine phytoplankton production may have declined at a rate of ~1% of the global median per year. Regional-scale changes have been more heterogeneous; with the equatorial Pacific Ocean experiencing overall declines of over 50% the last decade and Polar Regions experiencing increases of comparable magnitude. Clearly, there is a strong need for a more complete understanding of the relationship between biodiversity and carbon availability to better predict the consequences of current and forthcoming climate change on marine ecosystems. One challenge is that determinants of available carbon in natural systems are diverse and often unidentifiable. Wood-fall communities in the deep sea are an ideal experimental system for testing many theories about carbon availability and biodiversity. First, the amount of carbon available to the community can be precisely manipulated in the form of wood mass. Second, flows of carbon from wood through the community can be easily tracked because animals supported by wood have distinct chemical signatures that can be traced with stable isotope analysis. Finally, the entire community associated with a wood fall can be sampled, allowing for accurate estimates of biodiversity, biomass, and energy flow. For these reasons, study of deep-sea wood falls provides accurate and simultaneous quantification of standing stock, diversity, and trophic structure as a function of energy availability. Through the use of ROV/submersible-deployed wood falls, the project will test how changes in carbon availability impact marine biodiversity. The results of this project will be beneficial to science in several ways. First, the project contributes significantly to climate change and biodiversity research and specifically to knowledge of the underexplored deep oceans. The project also creates abundant opportunities for public outreach. The multifaceted approach includes: employing web podcasts and blogs; sharing results through photographic exhibitions; and actively recruiting from minority-serving institutions while also providing visiting lectureships. Further, the project will recruit and train young scientists in underrepresented groups, and impact multiple audiences from primary education students, science instructors, and the general public. The goal of this project is to identify the interactions in energetic processes that regulate community structure, using ROV/submersible-deployed wood falls. Wood will be deployed in varying sizes to control the amount of chemical energy added to the community, and of different wood densities to examine assembly rules while examining total quantity and concentration of resources. This approach will allow the investigators to examining energetic tradeoffs is that multiple impacts, hypotheses, and theories of varying carbon availability on biodiversity can be evaluated simultaneously. The amount of carbon in the community can be precisely manipulated, an improvement over prior studies. The impact of the rate of carbon uptake on ecological processes will also be examined here, but has been rarely evaluated. This research will also reveal much about wood-fall biomes in the deep sea, one of the least studied systems in the ocean. For example, the project will reveal the relative importance different carbon pathways in exporting wood energy and controlling biodiversity.