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

珊瑚礁是数以千计的海洋物种的栖息地，有助于保护海岸线免受风暴破坏，产生旅游业，并提供供人类食用的家养鱼类。然而，珊瑚很容易受到水温上升的影响，这可能会导致珊瑚死亡。珊瑚礁在变暖的海洋中生存的一种方法是，让非常适合温暖水域的珊瑚重新繁殖那些温度耐受性较差的珊瑚礁。然而，为了这一策略的成功，更耐高温的珊瑚需要能够分散到这些不同的环境中并在其中生存。该项目利用了太平洋国家帕劳的珊瑚礁系统，这些系统在短地理距离内自然经历了大范围的温度变化。使用尖端的生态和基因组技术，研究小组正在直接测试来自帕劳最温暖的珊瑚礁的幼年珊瑚是否能被洋流成功地带到帕劳目前较冷的珊瑚礁，然后在这些栖息地生存和繁衍。鉴于这项研究与当地生态的相关性，该团队正在与与该团队一起实习的帕劳科学家一起，通过一份书面报告向帕劳政府传播结果，并通过公开演讲向帕劳人民传播结果。作为这项工作的一部分，调查人员正在维护一个博客，并组织一个结合舞蹈、音乐和科学的音乐讲座系列，以提高美国英语和西班牙语社区对珊瑚礁危机的认识。该项目的结果为珊瑚保护联盟的恢复和保护实践以及世界范围内的其他努力提供了信息。进化生物学的一个主要问题是可塑性和适应性如何相互作用，影响在新环境下的生存。随着与气候变化相关的气温上升影响到全球物种，了解这些过程变得越来越重要。对于具有浮游幼体阶段的海洋生物，包括造礁珊瑚，后沉降期是适应和可塑性的关键瓶颈，再加上所经历的条件和作为幼体所花费的时间可能引起的结转效应。该项目利用帕劳跨越陡峭环境梯度的珊瑚礁，研究环境变化如何推动选择和可塑性，并研究珊瑚礁之间的扩散是否由于遗留效应而限制了栖息地的成功。研究人员正在测试最重要的假设，即来自更温暖和更多变的环境的珊瑚能够适应更温暖的温度，并表现出更强的可塑性，但在珊瑚礁之间的扩散会产生适应成本。该团队整合了现场和分子技术，以：1)调查在更温暖和更多变的珊瑚礁上发生的选择程度，2)测试移植到更多变化环境中的珊瑚是否通过发育可塑性提高它们的耐热性，以及3)检查珊瑚礁间扩散所需的变态延迟是否会因结转效应而付出适当的代价。这一奖项反映了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。

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.