Collaborative Research: Comparative feeding by gelatinous grazers on microbial prey

海洋由微生物和植物主宰，它们是食物网的基础，并在全球范围内推动能源和碳循环。 柔软的、类似海绵的动物，被称为凝胶状食草动物，专门利用粘液制成的网来捕食微生物。胶质食草动物在海洋中数量丰富，对微生物的摄食率很高，因此可能对微生物的丰度和多样性产生非常强烈的影响，并可能改变目前对海洋食物网的理解。然而，凝胶食草动物是非常脆弱的，在他们的分布补丁，所以它一直很难确定这些重要的捕食者-猎物的关系在一个有意义的规模上使用传统的方法，因此，他们通常被忽视的食物网研究的规模和动态。了解更多关于胶质食草动物和微生物之间的捕食关系将提高对海洋结构，力学和动力学的理解？食物网是地球上重要的经济和生态系统资源。该项目正在确定胶质动物对微生物的摄食率，以告知食物网模型。 该项目还培训学生交流，传播和解释科学发现。这些更广泛的影响目标将通过与俄勒冈州大学的伙伴关系来实现（应用科学传播）和波特兰州立大学（高级技术写作），培训1名博士生、2名本科生和4名科学传播实习生，一周的发展，长期研讨会，并建立学生导师关系，以生产通信产品。该项目将实验室和海洋学方法相结合，解决凝胶状食草动物和海洋微生物之间捕食者-猎物关系的几个具体方面。五种不同类型的凝胶状食草动物，每种都有不同的进食形态和生活史，将在海洋环境中进行研究，具有丰富多样的天然微生物种群。这些目标生物包括远洋被囊动物（囊类、无囊类、长囊类和火体类）和尾体翼足类。 该方法量化了：1）在自然海洋环境中的放牧率，2）颗粒选择性，重点是大小和形状，3）摄食的形态和流体动力学特性，这些特性是测量的放牧率和颗粒选择的基础。 该项目使用了多种技术，包括通过SCUBA潜水采样，实验室实验，高速/高分辨率摄像，流式细胞术和DNA测序技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The oceans are dominated by microscopic plants and animals (microorganisms) that are at the base of the food web and drive energy and carbon cycles on global scales. Soft jellylike animals called gelatinous grazers specialize in feeding on microorganisms using nets made out of mucus. Gelatinous grazers are abundant in the ocean and have high feeding rates on microorganisms so could have a very strong influence on the abundance and diversity of microorganisms and could change how oceanic food webs are currently understood. However, gelatinous grazers are very fragile and patchy in their distributions so it has been difficult to determine the magnitude and dynamics of these important predator-prey relationships on a meaningful scale using traditional approaches, thus they have typically been disregarded in food web studies. Learning more about the predator-prey relationship between gelatinous grazers and microorganisms will improve understanding of the structure, mechanics, and dynamics of the ocean?s food web, which is a critical economic and ecosystem resource on Earth. This project is determining grazing rates by gelatinous animals on microbes to inform food web models. The project also trains students to communicate, disseminate, and interpret scientific findings. These broader impacts goals will be attained through partnerships at the University of Oregon (Applied Scientific Communication) and Portland State University (Advanced Technical Writing), training of 1 PhD student, 2 undergraduates, and 4 science communication interns, and development of a week-long workshop and establish student mentorship relationships towards production of communication products.The project integrates laboratory and oceanographic approaches to address several specific aspects of the predator-prey relationship between gelatinous grazers and ocean microorganisms. Five distinct types of gelatinous grazers, each with different feeding morphologies and life history, will be studied in an oceanographic setting with an abundant and diverse natural microbial population. These target organisms include pelagic tunicates (salps, appendicularians, doliolods and pyrosomes) and thecosome pteropods. The approach quantifies: 1) grazing rates in the natural ocean environment, 2) particle selectivity with a focus on size and shape and, 3) the morphological and hydrodynamic properties of feeding that underlie the measured grazing rates and particle selection. The project uses a variety of techniques including sampling via SCUBA diving, laboratory experiments, high speed/high resolution videography, flow cytometry, and DNA sequencing techniques.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.