Major improvements of the outdoor mesocosm facility at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences

海洋生物正受到全球气候变化的影响，海水温度上升和海洋酸化对海洋物种和生态系统的影响尤为明显。持续监测和分析气候变化的影响，对于我们了解当前形势，以及我们提供准确预测和设计并执行适当适应战略的能力至关重要。该项目通过在百慕大海洋科学研究所（BIOS：http://www.bios.edu）建立一个海洋中观生态系统设施来提供这种基础设施能力。海洋中生态系统，或一系列流动海水的户外实验水族馆系统，帮助科学家在受控条件下研究物种及其自然环境。它们在严格控制的单物种实验室实验和基本上“不可控”的原位（自然界）实验和观察之间提供了一个重要的桥梁，从而提供了对环境变化如何影响生物体以及因此影响群落结构和生态系统功能的更现实的理解。该设施将有能力准确地操纵和测量环境参数，如海水温度、流速、海洋酸化和光照，这些参数对于现实地预测全球变化对海洋生态系统的影响至关重要。新设施将通过促进BIOS与海外科学家之间的合作和跨学科研究，对海洋科学界的研究能力产生深远影响。该设施还将通过培训本科生和研究生进行和分析复杂的多重压力研究来扩大实践教育机会。本地和访问K-12计划和公众宣传将受益于演示和图尔斯，沟通所进行的研究和所使用的技术，以及教学模块，实习和工作影子的机会。此外，研究成果的传播将表明全球变化设施如何使科学家更深入地了解气候变化将如何影响海洋环境。该奖项为百慕大海洋围隔生态系统设施的开发提供资金，该设施是一个强大、易于操作、多功能的基础设施，能够进行各种接近自然的生物和社区规模的单因素和多因素操纵实验，对于弥合海洋生物生理反应研究与社区/生态系统影响之间的差距至关重要。BMMF的主要设施组件包括用于所有流动海水盆地的强大温度控制单元，这是所有海洋生物实验的基础;二氧化碳供应和监测系统;以及一些增加设施多功能性的供应：控制海水供应，自然和控制阳光，增加水池数量和改进设计，和一个浮船坞，可以直接进入海洋环境。这些组成部分将使广泛的实验设计（从水槽实验到高度重复的基于生物的实验）能够研究自然条件和全球变化情景下各个层次的海洋生态系统响应。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

Ocean life is being impacted by global climate change with the effects of increases in seawater temperature and ocean acidification on marine species and ecosystems being particularly apparent. Continued monitoring and analyses of the impacts of climate change are critical to our understanding of the current situation, as well as our ability to provide accurate predictions and to design and implement appropriate adaptation strategies. This project provides such infrastructure capacity through the establishment of a marine mesocosm facility at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS: http://www.bios.edu). Marine mesocosms, or a series of outdoor experimental aquaria systems with flowing seawater, help scientists examine species and their natural environment under controlled conditions. They provide an important bridge between strongly controlled single species laboratory- based experiments and largely ‘un-controllable’ in situ (in nature) experiments and observations, thereby offering a more realistic understanding of how environmental changes affect organisms and, consequently, community structure and ecosystem functioning. The facility will have the ability to accurately manipulate and measure environmental parameters, such as seawater temperature, flow rate, ocean acidification, and light, which are essential for making realistic predictions on global change impacts to marine ecosystems. The new facility will have a far-reaching impact on the research capacity of the marine sciences community through the promotion of collaborative and interdisciplinary research between BIOS and overseas scientists. The facility will also expand hands-on education opportunities by training undergraduate and graduate students to conduct and analyse complex multi-stressor studies. Local and visiting K-12 programs and public outreach will benefit from demonstrations and tours that communicate the research undertaken and technology utilized, as well as teaching modules, internships, and work shadow opportunities. In addition, dissemination of the research will demonstrate how global change facilities provide scientists with greater insights on how climate change will affect the marine environment. This award provides funding to develop the Bermuda Marine Mesocosm Facility (BMMF), an infrastructure that is robust, easy to handle, versatile, and enables a wide range of near-natural organism- and community-scale single- and multi-factor manipulation experiments, which are vital to bridge the gap between research on physiological responses of marine organisms and community/ecosystem impacts. The main facility components of the BMMF include robust temperature control units for all basins of flowing seawater, which is fundamental for all experiments on marine organisms; a CO2 supply and monitoring system; and a number of supplies that increase the versatility of the facility: controlled seawater supply, natural and controlled sunlight, an increase in the number of basins and improvements to design, and a floating dock for immediate access to the marine environment. Together, these components will enable a wide range of experimental designs (from flume experiments to highly replicated organism-based experiments) to study marine ecosystem responses across various levels under both natural conditions and global change scenarios.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.