RII Track-4: Building Knowledge on Genotyping Seagrasses to Assess Competitive Interactions under Climate Change

RII Track-4：积累海草基因分型知识以评估气候变化下的竞争相互作用

• 批准号: 1832997
• 负责人: Edwin Cruz-Rivera
• 金额: $ 17.08万
• 依托单位: University of The Virgin Islands
• 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: 2018-10-01 至 2022-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1832997&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; Building; Knowledge; Genotyping

Non-technical DescriptionBiodiversity affects the proper functioning of ecosystems, their resistance to environmental changes, and their ability to recover after disturbance. One component of biodiversity, the diversity of genes within populations, is receiving more attention following recient technological advances enabling researchers to measure and map genetic diversity in nature. Evidence has shown that this genetic diversity can be as important in maintaining a healthy ecosystem as the number of different species interacting in an area. This work will study how genetic diversity of an important widespread seagrass species affects its competition with seasonally-abundant algae under current and future expected environmental temperature changes. Because seagrass beds are important to maintain coastal water quality, control erosion, and as nursery grounds for commercially important species, this research is relevant to the ecology, economics and food security of coastal zones. The funding will establish an active collaboration between the researcher and his graduate student from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI, a HBCU) and researchers at the University of California at Davis; and will take advantage of the world-class Climate Change Research Facility at Bodega Marine Laboratory. Additionally, this fellowship will facilitate the development of techniques to assess genetic diversity of Caribbean seagrasses, which are facing multiple environmental threats including possible displacement by a fast-spreading introduced seagrass originally form the Red Sea an Indian Ocean. These techniques will be leveraged to develop future proposals and provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students at UVI.Technical DescriptionRecent work has highlighted that intraspecific genetic diversity may be as important as species diversity in mediating ecosystem function, resistance to disturbance and resilience. Under the context of climate change, genetic diversity has also received attention for determining adaptive potential of species to global temperature increases. However, temperature also has a strong effect on species interactions. To date, the combined effects of genotype and temperature on interaction strength remain unknown. This work will evaluate the influence of plant genotype in determining the outcome of competition between the seagrass Zostera marina, an important ecosystem engineer, and the seasonally-abundant green alga Ulva lactuca. By conducting experiments at the Climate Change Research Facility of Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) housed at the University of California at Davis, this research will assess the outcome of competitive interactions between Z. marina known genotypes and U. lactuca, under current and future temperatures predicted by global warming models. The fellowship will provide a transformative opportunity for the PI and a graduate student from the University of the Virgin Islands (a HBCU) by establishing a synergistic collaboration with experts at UC Davis and BML. In particular, the seagrass genotyping techniques developed by collaborators at UC Davis will be adapted to the study of Caribbean species, which are currently declining as a result of multiple environmental stressors including potential displacement by the introduced seagrass Halophila stipulacea.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.

非技术描述生物多样性影响生态系统的正常功能、对环境变化的抵抗力以及在受到干扰后恢复的能力。生物多样性的一个组成部分，即种群内的基因多样性，随着技术的不断进步而受到更多的关注，这使得研究人员能够测量和绘制自然界的遗传多样性。有证据表明，对于维持一个健康的生态系统，这种遗传多样性可能与一个地区不同物种相互作用的数量一样重要。这项工作将研究在当前和未来预期的环境温度变化下，一种重要的广泛分布的海草物种的遗传多样性如何影响其与季节性丰富的藻类的竞争。由于海草床对维持海岸水质、控制侵蚀以及作为重要商业物种的育苗场非常重要，因此这项研究与沿海地区的生态、经济和粮食安全有关。这笔资金将在这位研究人员及其来自维尔京群岛大学的研究生和加州大学戴维斯分校的研究人员之间建立积极的合作关系；并将利用博德加海洋实验室的世界级气候变化研究设施。此外，这一研究金将促进开发评估加勒比海草遗传多样性的技术，这些海草正面临多种环境威胁，包括最初从红海到印度洋的一种快速传播的引进海草可能造成的流离失所。这些技术将被用来制定未来的建议，并为UVI的研究生和本科生提供机会。技术说明最近的研究强调，种内遗传多样性在调节生态系统功能、抵抗干扰和恢复能力方面可能与物种多样性一样重要。在气候变化的背景下，遗传多样性在确定物种对全球气温上升的适应潜力方面也受到了关注。然而，温度对物种间的相互作用也有很强的影响。到目前为止，基因和温度对互作强度的联合影响尚不清楚。这项工作将评估植物基因型在决定重要的生态系统工程海草Zostera marina和季节性丰富的绿藻Ulva Lactuca之间竞争结果的影响。通过在位于加州大学戴维斯分校的博德加海洋实验室(BML)的气候变化研究设施进行实验，这项研究将评估在全球变暖模型预测的当前和未来气温下，已知的马里纳菌株和生菜之间竞争性相互作用的结果。该研究金将通过与加州大学戴维斯分校和圣母大学的专家建立协同合作，为国际和平协会和维尔京群岛大学(HBCU)的一名研究生提供一个变革的机会。特别是，加州大学戴维斯分校的合作者开发的海草基因分型技术将适用于加勒比海物种的研究，目前由于多种环境压力因素，包括引入的海草盐生植物可能造成的流离失所，加勒比海物种的数量正在下降。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。