Collaborative Research: Mechanisms of resistance and resilience to system-wide loss of a keystone predator in an iconic intertidal community

合作研究：标志性潮间带群落中关键捕食者全系统丧失的抵抗力和恢复力机制

• 批准号: 1735607
• 负责人: Peter Raimondi
• 金额: $ 67万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-15 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1735607&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Mechanisms; resistance; resilience

Diseases that compromise the health of predators can lead to large, abrupt and sometimes unexpected changes in the structure of ecosystems. This project will combine field surveys, manipulative experiments and mathematical models to both understand and predict the ecosystem-level effects of the unprecedented sea star wasting disease (SSWD) outbreak that devastated populations of Pisaster ochraceus, a critical predator, across the West Coast of the United States. Specifically, the project will determine (1) the ecological and environmental factors that promote vs. compromise the resilience of intertidal ecosystems to sea star wasting disease, (2) document the pace and extent of recovery from this major disturbance across the West Coast of the United States, and (3) identify hotspots of resilience to sea star wasting disease that may serve as important conservation targets to preserve these iconic ecosystems. The research will address important societal needs by cross-training undergraduate and graduate students in disease ecology, marine biology, mathematical modeling and biostatistics. Students from underrepresented groups will be recruited broadly from West Coast states. Each summer, four undergraduate students will be trained in rocky intertidal field research techniques. SSWD-focused modules will be developed and used in ecology courses at each institution to emphasize the importance of quantitative and interdisciplinary training for addressing important questions in biology. Graduate students will work with the Oregon Migrant Leadership Institute (OMLI) for migrant workers and their children to create workshops for students about SSWD. The PIs will continue interacting with the media and public groups, and will expand outreach activities through The Nature Conservancy and CoastWatch-sponsored workshops for high school teachers interested in involving students in sea star monitoring to ensure that the results of this project are disseminated beyond traditional academic circles. Finally, a series of model-based interactive web modules will be created as part of this project to illustrate the ecosystem-level effects of sea star wasting disease to the broader public. The studies on this model system will lead to a better understanding of how other ecosystems may resist or be vulnerable to human activities (e.g., fishing, hunting and habitat destruction) that asymmetrically influence top predators.Diseases that threaten the health of predators can reduce their top-down influence and thus lead to significant changes in ecosystem structure. In 2013-15, sea star wasting disease (SSWD) devastated populations of Pisaster ochraceus, the original keystone predator, along the west coast of North America in one of the most extensive marine disease events ever recorded. This project will leverage this unprecedented outbreak to test and extend keystone predation theory by documenting and explaining the temporal pace, geographical extent, and spatiotemporal co-occurrence of ecosystem recovery from SSWD. The disease event also provides an opportunity to test the resistance and resilience of a well-studied ecosystem at an unprecedented scale. At each of 14 sites, the investigators will quantify processes that underlie potential resistance of the system to loss of sea stars (prey recruitment and colonization, mussel growth, predation intensity, facilitative interactions among sessile organisms, and the effect of alternative predators). In the latter experiments, the PIs will conduct caging exclusion experiments to test the effects of both larger (e.g., birds) and smaller (e.g., whelks) alternative predators on prey recolonization of cleared plots. The investigators will also conduct a novel set of experiments to manipulate factors affecting facilitation of mussels by barnacles and turf-forming algae. All these empirical studies will be used to parameterize modeling efforts that will explore the longer-term and larger-scale implications of these processes, both for this system and for other ecosystems. Specifically, the PIs will fit a novel spatially-explicit metacommunity model to the empirical data in order to determine the relative importance of intraspecific and interspecific resistance vs. resilience mechanisms for the recovery of intertidal ecosystems following a historical, coastal-scale SSWD disturbance.

危害捕食者健康的疾病可能导致生态系统结构发生巨大、突然、有时是意想不到的变化。该项目将结合实地调查、操作实验和数学模型，以了解和预测前所未有的海星消耗病（SSWD）爆发对生态系统的影响，该疾病在美国西海岸摧毁了一种重要的捕食者Pisaster ochraceus的种群。具体而言，该项目将确定(1)促进和损害潮间带生态系统对海星损耗病恢复能力的生态和环境因素，(2)记录美国西海岸从这一主要干扰中恢复的速度和程度，以及(3)确定对海星损耗病恢复能力的热点，这些热点可能成为保护这些标志性生态系统的重要保护目标。该研究将通过交叉培训本科生和研究生在疾病生态学、海洋生物学、数学建模和生物统计学方面的重要社会需求。来自代表性不足群体的学生将广泛从西海岸各州招募。每年夏天，四名本科生将接受岩石潮间带野外研究技术的培训。每个机构的生态学课程将开发和使用以sswd为重点的模块，以强调定量和跨学科培训对解决生物学中的重要问题的重要性。研究生将与俄勒冈州移民领导学院（OMLI）合作，为移民工人及其子女创建关于可持续社会发展的研讨会。私人机构将继续与媒体和公众团体互动，并将通过大自然保护协会和海岸观察组织为有意让学生参与海星监测的高中教师举办的讲习班，扩大外联活动，以确保这个项目的结果传播到传统学术界之外。最后，作为该项目的一部分，将创建一系列基于模型的交互式网络模块，向更广泛的公众说明海星萎蔫病对生态系统的影响。对该模型系统的研究将有助于更好地了解其他生态系统如何抵抗或容易受到人类活动（例如，捕鱼、狩猎和栖息地破坏）的影响，这些活动对顶级捕食者产生不对称影响。威胁捕食者健康的疾病可以减少它们自上而下的影响，从而导致生态系统结构的重大变化。2013- 2015年，海星消耗病（SSWD）摧毁了北美西海岸原始的梯形掠食者Pisaster ochraceus的种群，这是有史以来最广泛的海洋疾病事件之一。该项目将利用这一前所未有的爆发，通过记录和解释生态系统从SSWD恢复的时间速度、地理范围和时空共现性，来测试和扩展基石捕食理论。该疾病事件还提供了一个机会，以前所未有的规模测试一个得到充分研究的生态系统的抵抗力和复原力。在14个地点中的每一个，研究人员将量化该系统对海星丧失的潜在抵抗力的过程（猎物的招募和定植，贻贝的生长，捕食强度，无根生物之间的促进相互作用，以及替代捕食者的影响）。在后一项实验中，pi将进行笼中排斥实验，以测试大型（如鸟类）和小型（如海螺）替代捕食者对猎物重新定居的影响。研究人员还将进行一系列新的实验，以操纵影响藤壶和草皮形成藻类对贻贝的促进作用的因素。所有这些实证研究都将用于参数化建模工作，以探索这些过程对该系统和其他生态系统的长期和更大规模的影响。具体来说，pi将在经验数据中拟合一个新的空间显式元群落模型，以确定种内和种间抵抗与恢复机制在历史性海岸尺度SSWD干扰后潮间带生态系统恢复中的相对重要性。

项目成果

Reduction and recovery of keystone predation pressure after disease-related mass mortality

疾病相关的大规模死亡后关键捕食压力的减少和恢复

• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: Ecology and evolution
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Moritsch, M;Raimondi, P
• 通讯作者: Raimondi, P

Models with environmental drivers offer a plausible mechanism for the rapid spread of infectious disease outbreaks in marine organisms

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62118-4
• 发表时间: 2020-04-06
• 期刊: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Aalto, E. A.;Lafferty, K. D.;De Leo, G. A.
• 通讯作者: De Leo, G. A.