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，海水温度升高和海洋酸化对海洋物种和生态系统的影响尤为明显。对气候变化影响的持续监测和分析对于我们了解当前形势、提供准确预测以及设计和实施适当适应战略的能力至关重要。本项目通过在百慕大海洋科学研究所（百慕大海洋科学研究所：http://www.bios.edu）建立海洋中游环境设施提供这种基础设施能力。海洋中生态系统，或一系列室外实验水族系统与流动的海水，帮助科学家研究物种和他们在受控条件下的自然环境。它们在强控制的单物种实验室实验和很大程度上“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如何影响群落结构和生态系统功能的更现实的理解。该设施将能够精确地操纵和测量海水温度、流速、海洋酸化和光照等环境参数，这些参数对于预测全球变化对海洋生态系统的影响至关重要。新设施将通过促进海洋研究所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的影响。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压力源研究来扩大实践教育机会。当地和来访的K-12项目和公共宣传将从展示和参观中受益，这些展示和参观将传达所进行的研究和使用的技术，以及教学模块、实习和工作影子机会。此外，研究的传播将展示全球变化设施如何为科学家提供关于气候变化如何影响海洋环境的更深入的见解。该奖项为开发百慕大海洋中生态设施（BMMF）提供资金，该基础设施坚固、易于操作、用途广泛，能够进行广泛的近自然生物和群落规模的单因素和多因素操纵实验，这对于弥合海洋生物生理反应和群落/生态系统影响研究之间的差距至关重要。BMMF的主要设施组成包括用于所有流动海水盆地的坚固的温度控制单元，这是所有海洋生物实验的基础；二氧化碳供应和监测系统；还有一些设备增加了设施的通用性：可控的海水供应，自然和受控的阳光，增加了盆地的数量和设计的改进，以及一个可以立即进入海洋环境的浮动船坞。总之，这些组成部分将实现广泛的实验设计（从水槽实验到高度复制的基于生物的实验），以研究自然条件和全球变化情景下不同水平的海洋生态系统反应。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

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.