RAPID: Collaborative Research: Autumn transition in plankton ecology during an ocean heatwave on the Northeast U.S. Shelf

RAPID：合作研究：美国东北部陆架海洋热浪期间浮游生物生态的秋季转变

• 批准号: 2102422
• 负责人: Tatiana Rynearson
• 金额: $ 1.79万
• 依托单位: University of Rhode Island
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-01 至 2021-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2102422&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Autumn; transition

The continental shelf waters off the Northeast U.S. are some of the most productive on the globe. They are also warming at a faster rate than average. While a variety of climate change impacts on ocean biology have been documented, mechanistic understanding lags behind. The goal of the Northeast U.S. Shelf Long-Term Ecological Research (NES-LTER) project is to understand and predict how the composition and structure of planktonic food webs change through space and time in response to the environment and how changes in the community impact ecosystem productivity, particularly at higher trophic levels. This decade has brought an increased prevalence of heat waves in the waters of the Northeast Shelf, and 2020 was no exception. This project incorporates the effect of an unusual warm temperature summer into the NES-LTER conceptual framework, recognizing that marine heat waves are superimposed on long-term warming trends. The Northeast Shelf provides an array of ecosystem services including food, energy extraction, shipping, recreation, and conservation; its integrity is critical to the function of the Northeast U.S. economy. In the face of climate change and other patterns of disturbance, sustaining these ecosystem services will require effective and efficient management. One broader impact of the study is the contribution of key knowledge for the effective management of the region through improved understanding of ecosystem dynamics and functioning. Educational opportunities for six early career scientists include research training in the field and the laboratory. These early career scientists are involved in critical data collection in a year when opportunities for new observations have been extremely limited due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A special process cruise is dedicated to characterizing food webs and production regimes across the Northeast Shelf during the autumn transition following the summer 2020 ocean heat wave. Field observations are documenting the nature of the transition and testing the hypothesis that autumn conditions fall along a linear continuum between summer and winter community structure, productivity, and export. The suite of NES-LTER measurements applied to past summer and winter transects are being carried out, including underway continuous sampling for pico- to micro-plankton and gas tracer-based productivity, discrete water sampling to initiate incubation experiments for plankton growth and grazing rates at stations along a cross-shelf transect, and net tows to sample larger plankton for genetic diversity and isotopic analysis for food web characterization. Ultimately, quantifying and understanding variability on seasonal, interannual, and decadal time scales is enabling prediction of future productivity and ecosystem state.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.

美国东北部的大陆架沃茨是地球仪上最具生产力的水域之一。它们也以比平均速度更快的速度变暖。虽然已经记录了气候变化对海洋生物的各种影响，但对机制的理解仍然落后。美国东北部大陆架长期生态研究（NES-LTER）项目的目标是了解和预测营养食物网的组成和结构如何随时间和空间变化以响应环境，以及群落的变化如何影响生态系统的生产力，特别是在较高的营养水平。这十年来，东北大陆架沃茨的热浪越来越普遍，2020年也不例外。该项目将异常温暖的夏季的影响纳入NES-LTER概念框架，认识到海洋热浪叠加在长期变暖趋势上。东北大陆架提供了一系列生态系统服务，包括食物，能源开采，航运，娱乐和保护;其完整性对美国东北部经济的功能至关重要。面对气候变化和其他形式的干扰，维持这些生态系统服务将需要有效和高效的管理。这项研究的一个更广泛的影响是，通过更好地了解生态系统动态和功能，为有效管理该区域提供了关键知识。六名早期职业科学家的教育机会包括实地和实验室的研究培训。由于COVID-19大流行造成的干扰，新观察的机会极为有限，这些早期职业科学家参与了关键数据的收集。在2020年夏季海洋热浪之后的秋季过渡期间，一个特殊的过程巡航致力于描述东北大陆架的食物网和生产制度。实地观察记录的性质的过渡和测试的假设，秋季条件下降沿着一个线性连续体之间的夏季和冬季的社区结构，生产力和出口。目前正在对过去夏季和冬季的样带进行一套NES-LTER测量，包括对皮科至微型浮游生物和基于气体示踪剂的生产力进行连续采样，在沿着一个跨大陆架样带的各站进行离散水采样，以启动浮游生物生长和放牧率的孵化实验，以及拖网对较大的浮游生物进行采样，以了解遗传多样性，并进行同位素分析，以确定食物网的特征。最终，量化和了解季节、年际和十年时间尺度上的变化，能够预测未来的生产力和生态系统状态。该奖项反映了NSF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。