2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems Gordon Research Conference

2018年中光珊瑚礁生态系统戈登研究会议

• 批准号: 1738244
• 负责人: Michael Lesser
• 金额: $ 3万
• 依托单位: Gordon Research Conferences
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1738244&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: 2018; Mesophotic; Coral; Reef; Ecosystems

This award will provide support to conduct a newly approved Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled; Mesophotic Coral reef Ecosystems. The funds will be used to provide partial support for the registration and travel costs of conference attendees with special emphasis on conference speakers, junior scientists, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The 2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems GRC will provide a significant scientific and educational forum for this rapidly emerging field of coral reef science. This conference will be able to foster a diverse interdisciplinary meeting that brings many of the world's current scientists working in this field while also providing a dynamic forum to recruit new investigators and broaden diversity in the field. Climate change will continue to affect shallow coral reefs for decades to come but we know very little about the role(s) of MCEs in the resilience of their shallow water counterparts. The physical and biological connectivity between shallow and mesophotic reefs is essential to understand at a time when we do not even have a grasp of the extent and biodiversity of MCEs around the world. The support will help this growing field of researchers to coalesce behind some central questions and diversify in terms of discipline, gender and race. The GRC organizers anticipate this will result in an improved global network of mesophotic coral reef scientists that will be able to engage in interdisciplinary studies to answer critical questions on MCEs in a collaborative way.Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems (MCEs) are unique and understudied ecosystems characterized as low-light adapted deep reef communities that occur from ~30-150m. These reefs are typically further offshore from anthropogenic stressors and are below the depth limits of most natural disturbances. The habitat available for the development of MCEs has been variably estimated at three to ten times the known areal extent of shallow coral reefs (30 m). As a result, MCEs are increasingly recognized as potentially important refugia for a variety of shallow reef species currently impacted by climate change related stressors. Therefore, there is a critical need to address many questions regarding the structure and function of MCE communities in their own right, but also in the broadest sense that includes their role in the resilience of shallow coral reef communities to environmental insults. The group of scientists studying MCEs is growing rapidly and includes coral reef ecologists, molecular biologists, oceanographers, physiologists, biogeochemists, paleo-climatologists, fisheries biologists, microbiologists, chemical ecologists, population geneticists and managers interested in resource conservation. This GRC will assemble experts from around the world, as well as students and post-doctoral researchers, to present new data and evaluate the evidence supporting the multiple factors controlling the structure and function of MCE communities worldwide. Given the increasing number of investigators devoting research time to this new field of coral reef ecology and biology, and the increasing number of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers involved, the GRC expect to attract a minimum of 150 participants from around the world. Moreover, MCEs represent a unique biophysical gradient that is attracting researchers from other fields to address issues of adaptation at the genetic, biochemical, and physiological levels in these natural laboratories.

这项奖励将为举办新批准的戈登研究会议(GRC)提供支持，该会议的标题是；中生珊瑚礁生态系统。这笔资金将用于为会议与会者的注册费和旅费提供部分支助，特别侧重于会议发言人、初级科学家、博士后研究人员和来自各种背景的研究生。2018年中生珊瑚礁生态系统GRC将为这一迅速崛起的珊瑚礁科学领域提供一个重要的科学和教育论坛。这次会议将能够促进一次多样化的跨学科会议，使世界上许多目前在这一领域工作的科学家聚集在一起，同时也提供一个充满活力的论坛，以招募新的研究人员并扩大该领域的多样性。气候变化将在未来几十年继续影响浅海珊瑚礁，但我们对MCEs在浅水对应物的弹性中所起的作用(S)知之甚少。在我们甚至无法掌握世界各地海洋生态系统的范围和生物多样性的情况下，理解浅水礁和中温礁之间的物理和生物连通性是至关重要的。这种支持将有助于这一不断增长的研究领域在一些核心问题上达成一致，并在学科、性别和种族方面实现多样化。GRC组织者预计，这将改善全球中游珊瑚礁科学家网络，能够参与跨学科研究，以合作的方式回答MCEs上的关键问题。中游珊瑚礁生态系统(MCEs)是独特的、未被研究的生态系统，其特征是出现在约30-150米的低光适应深礁群落。这些珊瑚礁通常离人为应激源更远，低于大多数自然干扰的深度极限。据不同的估计，可用于开发MCEs的栖息地面积是已知的浅层珊瑚礁面积(30米)的三到十倍。因此，MCEs越来越被认为是目前受气候变化相关压力影响的各种浅海珊瑚礁物种的潜在重要避难所。因此，迫切需要解决许多问题，不仅涉及珊瑚礁社区本身的结构和功能，而且还涉及最广泛意义上的问题，包括它们在浅海珊瑚礁社区对环境侮辱的复原力方面的作用。研究MCEs的科学家群体正在迅速增长，其中包括珊瑚礁生态学家、分子生物学家、海洋学家、生理学家、生物地球化学家、古气候学家、渔业生物学家、微生物学家、化学生态学家、种群遗传学家和对资源保护感兴趣的管理者。GRC将汇集来自世界各地的专家以及学生和博士后研究人员，提出新的数据，并评估支持控制世界各地MCE社区结构和功能的多种因素的证据。鉴于越来越多的研究人员致力于这一新的珊瑚礁生态和生物学领域的研究，以及越来越多的研究生和博士后研究人员参与其中，GRC预计将吸引来自世界各地的至少150名参与者。此外，MCEs代表着一种独特的生物物理梯度，吸引着来自其他领域的研究人员在这些自然实验室的遗传、生化和生理水平上解决适应问题。