Collaborative Research: Pattern and process in the abundance and recruitment of Caribbean octocorals

合作研究：加勒比八珊瑚的丰富和补充的模式和过程

基本信息

批准号：
1756678
负责人：
Peter Edmunds
金额：
$ 43.25万
依托单位：
The University Corporation, Northridge
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-04-01 至 2023-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1756678&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Pattern process abundance

项目摘要

Coral reefs are exposed to a diversity of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and the consequences for ecosystem degradation have been widely publicized. However, the reported changes have been biased towards fishes and stony corals, and for Caribbean reefs, the most notable example of this bias are octocorals ("soft corals"). Although they are abundant and dominate many Caribbean reefs, they are rarely included in studies due to the difficulty of both identifying them and in quantifying their abundances. In some places there is compelling evidence that soft corals have increased in abundance, even while stony corals have become less common. This suggests that soft corals are more resilient than stony corals to the wide diversity of disturbances that have been impacting coral corals. The best coral reefs on which to study these changes are those that have been studied for decades and can provide a decadal context to more recent events, and in this regard the reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands are unique. Stony corals on the reefs have been studied since 1987, and the soft corals from 2014. This provides unrivalled platform to evaluate patterns of octocoral abundance and recruitment; identify the patterns of change that are occurring on these reefs, and identify the processes responsible for the resilience of octocoral populations. The project will extend soft coral monitoring from 4 years to 8 years, and within this framework will examine the roles of baby corals, and their response to seafloor roughness, seawater flow, and seaweed, in determining the success of soft corals. The work will also assess whether the destructive effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria have modified the pattern of change. In concert with these efforts the project will be closely integrated with local high schools at which the investigators will host marine biology clubs and provide independent study opportunities for their students and teachers. Unique training opportunities will be provided to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral researcher, all of whom will study and work in St. John, and the investigators will train coral reef researchers to identify the species of soft corals through a hands-on workshop to be conducted in the Florida Keys.Understanding how changing environmental conditions will affect the community structure of major biomes is the ecological objective defining the 21st century. The holistic effects of these conditions on coral reefs will be studied on shallow reefs within the Virgin Islands National Park in St. John, US Virgin Islands, which is the site of one of the longest-running, long-term studies of coral reef community dynamics in the region. With NSF-LTREB support, the investigators have been studying long-term changes in stony coral communities in this location since 1987, and in 2014 NSF-OCE support was used to build an octocoral "overlay" to this decadal perspective. The present project extends from this unique history, which has been punctuated by the effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, to place octocoral synecology in a decadal context, and the investigators exploit a rich suite of legacy data to better understand the present and immediate future of Caribbean coral reefs. This four-year project will advance on two concurrent fronts: first, to extend time-series analyses of octocoral communities from four to eight years to characterize the pattern and pace of change in community structure, and second, to conduct a program of hypothesis-driven experiments focused on octocoral settlement that will uncover the mechanisms allowing octocorals to more effectively colonize substrata than scleractinian corals on present day reefs. Specifically, the investigators will conduct mensurative and manipulative experiments addressing four hypotheses focusing on the roles of: (1) habitat complexity in distinguishing between octocoral and scleractinian recruitment niches, (2) the recruitment niche in mediating post-settlement success, (3) competition in algal turf and macroalgae in determining the success of octocoral and scleractian recruits, and (4) role of octocoral canopies in modulating the flux of particles and larvae to the seafloor beneath. The results of this study will be integrated to evaluate the factors driving higher ecological resilience of octocorals versus scleractinians on present-day Caribbean reefs.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.

珊瑚礁暴露于各种自然和人为障碍，对生态系统降解的后果已广泛宣传。然而，据报道的变化偏向鱼类和石质珊瑚，对于加勒比珊瑚礁，这种偏见的最显着例子是八角形（“软珊瑚”）。尽管它们很丰富，并且在许多加勒比海礁中占主导地位，但由于难以识别它们和量化其丰度，因此很少将它们包括在研究中。在某些地方，有令人信服的证据表明，即使石质珊瑚变得不那么普遍，软珊瑚的丰富度增加了。这表明，软珊瑚比石质珊瑚更具有弹性，对影响珊瑚珊瑚的多种干扰。研究这些变化的最佳珊瑚礁是已经研究了数十年的珊瑚礁，可以为最近的事件提供衰老的背景，在这方面，圣约翰的礁石礁，美国维尔京群岛是独一无二的。自1987年以来，已经对礁石上的石质珊瑚进行了研究，并从2014年开始进行软珊瑚。这提供了无与伦比的平台来评估八角形丰富和招募模式；确定这些珊瑚礁上发生的变化模式，并确定负责八碳种群弹性的过程。该项目将将软珊瑚监测从4年延长到8年，在此框架内将检查婴儿珊瑚的作用，以及它们对海底粗糙度，海水流量和海藻的反应，在确定软珊瑚的成功方面。这项工作还将评估Irma和Maria飓风的破坏性影响是否改变了变化的模式。在与这些努力的一致性协同下，该项目将与当地高中紧密整合，调查人员将在该高中接待海洋生物学俱乐部，并为其学生和老师提供独立的学习机会。将为本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员提供独特的培训机会，所有这些研究人员将在圣约翰学习和工作，研究人员将培训珊瑚礁研究人员，通过佛罗里达群岛在佛罗里达关键中进行的动态珊瑚的种类来确定软珊瑚的物种。理解环境环境如何影响社区的生物群体，这将是21个目标。这些条件对珊瑚礁的整体影响将在美国维尔京群岛圣约翰的维尔京群岛国家公园内的浅礁上进行研究，这是该地区珊瑚礁社区动态最长的长期研究之一。在NSF-LTREB的支持下，研究人员自1987年以来一直在研究该地点的石质珊瑚群落的长期变化，并在2014年使用NSF-OCE支持来建立八角形的“覆盖”，以对这一际际观点建立。本项目从飓风Irma和Maria的影响所刺破的独特历史延伸，将八角形的综合学放置在十年的背景下，研究人员利用了丰富的遗产数据来更好地了解加勒比海珊瑚礁的当前和立即未来。 This four-year project will advance on two concurrent fronts: first, to extend time-series analyses of octocoral communities from four to eight years to characterize the pattern and pace of change in community structure, and second, to conduct a program of hypothesis-driven experiments focused on octocoral settlement that will uncover the mechanisms allowing octocorals to more effectively colonize substrata than scleractinian corals on present day reefs. Specifically, the investigators will conduct mensurative and manipulative experiments addressing four hypotheses focusing on the roles of: (1) habitat complexity in distinguishing between octocoral and scleractinian recruitment niches, (2) the recruitment niche in mediating post-settlement success, (3) competition in algal turf and macroalgae in determining the success of octocoral and scleractian recruits, （4）八角冠型在调节下面海底的颗粒和幼虫的通量中的作用。这项研究的结果将集成，以评估在当今加勒比海礁上促进八角形与硬化症的更高生态弹性的因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准来通过评估来获得支持的。