Collaborative Research: Understanding bioerosion from individuals to ecosystems: the impacts of biotic and abiotic stressors on sponge erosion of oyster reefs.

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。牡蛎礁历来是美国最重要的经济和生态栖息地之一，但由于水质下降、过度捕捞和疾病，牡蛎礁遭受了重大损失。在全国各地的河口，已经实施了许多大规模的保护、恢复和研究工作，以帮助重建牡蛎礁。为了更好地了解和保护这些生态系统，这个项目的重点是了解在发现牡蛎的地区发生的破坏（侵蚀）过程。由生物体（称为生物侵蚀）促进的侵蚀，如钻孔海绵，是牡蛎养殖和恢复工作的问题，但对影响牡蛎礁上海绵生物侵蚀速率的过程知之甚少。为了解决这一知识差距，本研究正在评估被认为影响海绵生物侵蚀率的两个因素：捕食无聊海绵的裸鳃动物的存在和海洋酸化。该项目采用操纵实验和收集序列数据，1)确定大西洋和太平洋钻孔海绵物种在不同海洋酸化条件下对捕食者的反应方式；2)比较捕食者的存在和酸化对牡蛎礁海绵生物侵蚀速率的短期和长期影响。收集的实验数据将用于模拟牡蛎礁的生物侵蚀，以更好地了解这两个因素如何影响牡蛎礁碳酸盐的整体变化。这项研究为牡蛎养殖者、水产养殖者和恢复计划提供了更好的控制海绵生物侵蚀的管理实践，并提高了我们对生物和非生物压力因素如何单独和共同作用来改变海绵生物侵蚀行为的理解。该项目战略性地将一所小型文理学院（西方学院）的本科生与R1机构（路易斯安那州立大学）、R2西班牙裔服务机构（加州大学默塞德分校）的合作者联系起来，并将40多名本科生纳入项目的各个方面，包括密集的实地和实验室经验、生物信息学研讨会和基于课堂的项目。学生还将帮助创建开放获取的材料（包括书面和视频），详细说明研究方法、协议和分析，所有数据和代码将公开提供，以提高科学的透明度和可重复性。研究结果和开放获取的材料将通过科学会议、同行评议期刊、贝类养殖者和水产养殖者的行业会议以及社交媒体渠道广泛传播。生物介导的底物去除或生物侵蚀对牡蛎礁的生长和恢复力有负面影响；生物侵蚀海绵被认为是这些生态系统中最具破坏性的生物侵蚀类群之一。虽然已经发现许多非生物压力因素会影响海绵的生物侵蚀（如酸化、温度等），但生物侵蚀海绵对生物压力因素（如捕食）的反应能力仍未得到探索。本项目利用实验研究、转录组测序和裸鳃-海绵捕食者-猎物模型的数学建模来评估生物侵蚀海绵对生物和非生物应激源的反应。该研究确定了海绵如何在表型和转录组水平上改变它们在化学和机械生物侵蚀方面的相对投资，以响应捕食压力和海水酸化。该项目：(i)探索捕食者的存在是否直接引发了无聊海绵的生物侵蚀，（ii）在不同的时间尺度上定量评估无聊海绵对捕食和酸化的表型和转录组反应，以及（iii）确定海绵对这些非生物和生物因素的反应是否在系统发育和地理尺度上相似。该研究促进了对非热带、非珊瑚碳酸盐生态系统中海绵生物侵蚀的科学理解，并研究了这些过程在异质地理区域中的普遍性。这个项目有能力改变我们对海绵和生态系统之间生物和非生物相互作用的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Oyster reefs, historically one of the most important economic and ecological habitats in the U.S., have suffered major losses due to declining water quality, overharvesting, and diseases. In estuaries across the country, many large-scale conservation, restoration, and research efforts have been implemented to help reestablish oyster reefs. To better understand and protect these ecosystems, this project focuses on understanding the breakdown (erosion) processes that are occurring in areas where oysters are found. Erosion facilitated by living organisms (called bioerosion), such as boring sponges, is problematic for oyster aquaculture and restoration efforts, yet little is known about the processes that influence the rates of sponge bioerosion on oyster reefs. To address this knowledge gap, this research is evaluating two factors thought to affect sponge bioerosion rates: the presence of nudibranchs that prey on boring sponges and ocean acidification. The project uses manipulative experiments and collects sequence data to 1) determine the ways that Atlantic and Pacific boring sponge species respond to predators under different ocean acidification conditions, and 2) compare the short- and long-term effects of predator presence and acidification on sponge bioerosion rates of oyster reefs. The experimental data collected will be used to model bioerosion on simulated oyster reefs to better understand how these two factors influence overall oyster reef carbonate changes. This research informs better management practices for controlling sponge bioerosion for oyster growers, aquaculturists, and restoration programs and improve our understanding of how biotic and abiotic stressors act individually and together to alter sponge bioerosion behavior. This project strategically links undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college (Occidental College) with collaborators at an R1 institution (Louisiana State University), an R2 Hispanic-Serving Institution (University of California Merced), and will incorporate over 40 undergraduate students in various aspects of the project, including intensive field and lab experiences, bioinformatics workshops, and classroom-based projects. Students will also help create open-access materials (both written and video-based) that detail the research methods, protocols, and analyses and all data and code will be made publicly available to promote transparency and reproducibility in science. Results and open-access materials will be broadly disseminated via scientific conferences, peer-reviewed journals, industry meetings with shellfish growers and aquaculturists, and social media outlets.Organism-mediated substrate removal, or bioerosion, has a negative effect on oyster reef growth and resilience; bioeroding sponges are considered one of the most destructive bioeroding taxa in these ecosystems. While many abiotic stressors have been found to influence sponge bioerosion (e.g. acidification, temperature, etc.), the ability of bioeroding sponges to react to biotic stressors, such as predation, remains unexplored. This project uses experimental investigations, transcriptome sequencing, and mathematical modelling of a nudibranch-sponge predator-prey model to evaluate the responses of bioeroding sponges to biotic and abiotic stressors. The research determines how sponges modify their relative investment in chemical and mechanical bioerosion in response to predation pressure and seawater acidification at the phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. The project: (i) explores whether predator presence directly elicits bioerosion as an inducible defense in boring sponges, (ii) quantitatively assesses the phenotypic and transcriptomic response of boring sponges to predation and acidification over different temporal scales, and (iii) determines whether sponge response to these abiotic and biotic factors are similar across phylogenetic and geographic scales. The research advances the scientific understanding of sponge bioerosion in non-tropical, non-coral carbonate ecosystems and examines the ubiquity of these processes across heterogeneous geographic regions. This project has the capacity to transform our understanding of the biotic and abiotic interactions between boring sponges and the ecosystems where they reside.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.