Collaborative Research: How do selection, plasticity, and dispersal interact to determine coral success in warmer and more variable environments?

合作研究：选择、可塑性和扩散如何相互作用来决定珊瑚在温暖和多变的环境中的成功？

• 批准号: 2048589
• 负责人: Sarah Davies
• 金额: $ 51.68万
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-11-15 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2048589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; How; do; selection

Coral reefs host thousands of marine species, help protect coastlines from storm damage, generate tourism, and house fish used for human consumption. However, corals are vulnerable to increasing water temperatures, which can lead to coral death. One way for reefs to survive in warming oceans is for corals that are well-suited to warmer waters to repopulate reefs that have less temperature-tolerant individuals. For this strategy to succeed, however, the more temperature-tolerant corals need to be able to disperse to and survive in these different environments. This project takes advantage of reef systems in the Pacific nation of Palau that naturally experience a wide range in temperatures across short geographic distances. Using cutting-edge ecological and genomic techniques, the team of investigators is directly testing whether young corals from Palau’s warmest reefs can successfully be carried by ocean currents to Palau’s currently cooler reefs and subsequently survive and thrive in these habitats. Given the relevance of this research for the local ecology, the team is disseminating results to the Palauan government through a written report in conjunction with Palauan scientists who are interning with the team, and to the Palauan people through public presentations. As part of this work, the investigators are maintaining a blog and are organizing a music-lecture series combining dance, music, and science to promote awareness of the coral reef crisis across English and Spanish-speaking communities in the US. Results from this project are informing restoration and conservation practices of the Coral Conservation Consortium as well as other efforts worldwide.A major question in evolutionary biology is how plasticity and adaptation interact to influence survival under novel environments. Understanding these processes is increasingly important as rising temperatures associated with climate change influence species globally. For marine organisms with pelagic larval phases, including reef-building corals, the post-settlement period constitutes a critical bottleneck for adaptation and plasticity, with the added complexity that the conditions experienced and time spent as larvae can incur carryover effects. This project leverages reefs in Palau that span a steep environmental gradient to study how environmental variation drives selection and plasticity and to examine if dispersal between reefs limits success across habitats due to carryover effects. The investigators are testing the overarching hypothesis that corals from warmer and more variable environments are adapted to warmer temperatures and exhibit increased plasticity, but that dispersal between reefs incurs a fitness cost. The team integrates field and molecular techniques to: 1) investigate the degree of selection occurring on warmer and more variable reefs, 2) test whether corals transplanted to more variable environments improve their thermal tolerance through developmental plasticity, and 3) examine whether delays in metamorphosis required for dispersal across reefs comes at a fitness cost due to carryover effects.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.

珊瑚礁拥有数千种海洋物种，有助于保护海岸线免受风暴破坏，产生旅游业和用于人类消费的家庭鱼类。但是，珊瑚容易受到升高水温的影响，这可能导致珊瑚死亡。珊瑚礁在变暖海洋中生存的一种方法是适合温暖水域的珊瑚，以重新填充较低温度的个体的珊瑚礁。但是，要使这种策略成功，更耐温度的珊瑚需要能够在这些不同的环境中散布和生存。该项目利用了帕劳太平洋国家的礁石系统，自然而然地经历了短暂地质距离的温度。使用尖端的生态和基因组技术，研究人员正在直接测试帕劳最温暖的珊瑚礁的年轻珊瑚是否可以通过洋流成功地携带到帕劳目前凉爽的珊瑚礁，随后在这些栖息地中生存和繁荣。鉴于这项研究与当地生态学的相关性，该团队通过与正在与团队实习的Palauan科学家一起通过书面报告将结果传播给Palauan政府，并通过公开演讲与Palauan人民进行了交流。作为这项工作的一部分，调查人员正在维护博客，并组织了一个音乐演讲系列，结合了舞蹈，音乐和科学，以提高美国对英语和西班牙语社区的珊瑚礁危机的认识。该项目的结果是为珊瑚保护财团以及全球其他努力的恢复和保护实践提供信息。进化生物学的主要问题是，可塑性和适应性如何相互作用以影响新的环境下的生存。随着与气候变化相关的温度在全球影响物种，了解这些过程越来越重要。对于具有层状幼虫相的海洋生物（包括珊瑚礁珊瑚珊瑚），填充后时期构成了适应和可塑性的关键瓶颈，其额外的复杂性和作为幼虫所花费的时间可能会产生残留效应。该项目利用跨越蒸汽环境梯度的Palau的礁石来研究环境变化如何驱动选择和可塑性，并检查珊瑚礁之间的扩散是否限制了由于结转效应而导致的栖息地的成功。研究人员正在测试总体假设，即来自温暖和更可变环境的珊瑚适应温暖的温度和暴露的可塑性，但珊瑚礁之间的扩散增加了健身成本。团队将场和分子技术整合到：1）调查在温暖和更可变的礁石上进行的选择程度，2）测试是否要测试移植到更可变环境的珊瑚是否可以通过发育可变性提高其热耐受性，而3）检查是否需要跨reef的统计范围，以及在跨性别范围内，是否会造成较高的统计范围，以造成的统计范围，均涉及范围的范围。通过使用基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评论标准来通过评估来支持。