NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2021: Tracing coral reef energy fluxes from genes to ecosystems in a changing climate

这一行动为NSF 2021财年生物学博士后研究奖学金提供了资金，综合研究调查了支配基因组、环境和表型之间相互作用的生命规则。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训，这些研究员将以创新的方式为生活规则领域做出贡献。了解和衡量物种及其所在社区的生物学方面，对于预测它们将如何应对不断变化的气候至关重要。代谢率，即生物体获得并将能量分配给生命维持过程(如生长和繁殖)的速率，将物种与其环境联系在一起。因此，代谢率可能是了解物种及其生态系统的结构和动态的有用工具，并为预测气候变化的影响提供了机会。这对珊瑚礁等对气候变化敏感的生态系统尤其重要，由于气候变化、过度捕捞、污染和其他人为威胁，珊瑚礁在全球范围内正在减少。因此，该项目将以珊瑚礁生态系统作为模型，测试单个鱼类物种的代谢率是否可以用来解释和预测现在和未来生态系统的动态。该项目通过各种方法支持对其他科学家、当地社区、学生和其他公众的教育和推广。该项目旨在经验性地测试生态学理论，该理论假设代谢率控制着所有组织规模的生物过程，因此可以用来预测传统上难以估计的当前和未来的生态系统动态。这位研究员将使用虾虎鱼属的隐底栖鱼类作为模型系统，以测试使用代谢率来理解和预测这些过程的有效性。具体地说，该研究员将结合野外采集、分子生态学和生理学试验以及一个新的理论建模框架，以(1)验证使用代谢率来解释和预测隐底栖鱼类的人口和生活史，(2)评估代谢率是否通过其对生活史、人口学和种间相互作用的影响来控制生态系统功能，(3)通过对个体新陈代谢的影响来量化气温上升对生态系统功能的连锁影响，以及(4)通过种群基因组框架探索代谢率的生态进化决定因素。通过这个项目，这位研究员将在多样化和尖端的方法方面得到广泛的培训，并为其他更广泛的影响做出贡献，包括通过工作组与其他研究人员接触，与当地社区接触，为科学中代表性不足的群体举办免费定量生态学研讨会，以及学生参与代谢理论和珊瑚礁生态的机会。该奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2021, Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will contribute to the area of Rules of Life in innovative ways. Understanding and measuring aspects of the biology of species and the communities in which they live is crucial to predicting how they will respond to a changing climate. Metabolic rate, or the rate at which organisms acquire and allocate energy to life-sustaining processes such as growth and reproduction, links species to their environments. Thus, metabolic rate may be a useful tool to understand the structure and dynamics of species and their ecosystems, as well as provide an opportunity to predict the effects of climate change. This is especially important for ecosystems that are sensitive to climate change such as coral reefs, which are globally in decline due to climate change, overfishing, pollution, and other human-induced threats. Thus, this project will use coral reef ecosystems as a model to test whether the metabolic rate of individual fish species can be used to explain and predict the dynamics of ecosystems now and in the future. The project supports education and outreach for other scientists, local communities, and students and other members of the public through a variety of methods. The project aims to empirically test ecological theory that posits that metabolic rate governs biological processes at all scales of organization and as such, can be used to predict current and future ecosystem dynamics that are traditionally difficult-to-estimate. The Fellow will use cryptobenthic fishes in the gobiid genus Eviota as a model system to test the validity of using metabolic rate to understand and predict these processes. Specifically, the Fellow will couple field-based collections, molecular ecology, and physiological trials alongside a novel theoretical modeling framework to (1) validate the use of metabolic rate to explain and predict the demography and life history of cryptobenthic fishes, (2) assess whether metabolic rate governs ecosystem functioning through its influence on life history, demography, and interspecific interactions, (3) quantify the cascading effects of increasing temperature on ecosystem functioning through its effects on individual metabolism, and (4) explore the eco-evolutionary determinants of metabolic rate through a population genomic framework. Through this project, the Fellow will become broadly trained in diverse and cutting-edge methodologies and contribute to other broader impacts including engagement with other researchers via working groups, outreach with local communities, no-cost quantitative ecology workshops for under-represented groups in science, and opportunities for student participation in metabolic theory and coral reef ecology.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.