Unsuspected eukaryotic life inhabits rhodolith-forming coralline algae (Hapalidiales, Rhodophyta), a remarkable marine benthic microhabitat

红藻是一种独立的结壳海洋大型藻类(海藻)，称为珊瑚，常见于墨西哥湾西北部，它们是在45-90米深的其他海洋生物附着的主要基础。这项研究将大大增加我们对藻类多样性的了解。它还将评估轮藻是否可以作为具有生态和经济意义的重要微藻(种子库)生活史阶段的临时储存库，或者作为环境胁迫后物种的安全避难所。这些发现将为评估形成水华的微藻的普遍性打开大门，其中一些微藻是公共卫生问题，并在世界各地海洋生态系统的红藻中发现。该项目将为本科生和研究生以及博士后研究员和高中生提供培训机会，并关注代表性不足的群体。此外，调查人员将为公众制定独特的外联方案，并将向科学界和公众提供所有收集的数据，以便能够进行广泛的比较分析并与其他数据集整合。这些产品将对海洋藻类生物学、生态学、渔业和生物旅游领域具有重要意义。研究将使用针对初级生产者的高通量测序来表征红藻微生境生物群，采用针对参考数据集的高通量测序。这项研究还将通过对墨西哥湾藻类进行桑格测序，增加各种分子标记的参考数据集，以便于识别在后生生物编码分析中恢复的分类群。此外，还将制作不同藻类的专题研究和与红柱石相关的光养生物的图文并茂的现场指南。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rhodoliths are unattached crust-forming marine macroalgae (seaweeds) called corallines that are common in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico and they are the main foundation for the attachment of other marine life at 45-90 meter depth. This research will significantly increase our knowledge of algal diversity. It will also assess whether rodoliths may function as temporary reservoirs for life history stages of ecologically and economically important microalgae (seedbanks), or as a safe refuge for species following environmental stress. The findings will open the door to assess the universality of bloom-forming microalgae, some of which are of public health concerns, and are found inside rhodoliths in marine ecosystems around the world. This project will provide training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as a post-doctoral researcher and high school students, with attention to underrepresented groups. Additionally, the investigators will develop unique outreach programs for the public, and will make all data collected available to the scientific community and the general public to enable broad-scale comparative analyses and integration with other data sets. These products will be important for the fields of marine algal biology, ecology, fisheries and biotourism.The research will characterize the rhodolith microhabitat biota with plastid tufA, 16S V4 and 23S UPA metabarcoding (amplicon-based environmental sequencing) assays specifically targeting primary producers using high-throughput sequencing against reference datasets. The study will also augment reference datasets for various molecular markers through Sanger sequencing of Gulf algae for facilitated identification of taxa recovered in the metabarcoding assays. In addition, monographic research of various groups of algae and an illustrated field guide of rhodolith-associated phototrophs will be produced.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.