Collaborative Research: ECO-CBET: From Molecules to Sustainable Reef Platforms: Engineering Ecosystems for Coral Recruitment and Survival

珊瑚礁是由支撑整个生态系统的珊瑚骨架组成的大型水下结构。它们还为社会提供了巨大的利益，估计每年总计1万亿美元。这些好处包括为海岸线提供风暴防护，以及支持体育和商业渔业以及旅游业。不幸的是，全球珊瑚礁活珊瑚的丧失已导致对生态系统健康和社会的益处大大减少。珊瑚通过产生游动的幼虫进行繁殖，幼虫必须在珊瑚礁上找到一个安全的表面才能附着和生长。这一过程的成功率很低，因为珊瑚礁的水下表面不再支持幼年珊瑚的生存。关于珊瑚礁表面如何影响珊瑚附着和生长，人们知之甚少。这项研究的目标是解决这一知识鸿沟，并通过材料工程、流体物理、微生物学和保护生物学的合作，开发工程表面来促进珊瑚幼虫的定居。工程表面将在漂浮的水下平台上部署和测试，这些平台旨在通过增加水流和氧气供应来支持不断增长的珊瑚附着，并提高珊瑚的存活率。这项研究的成功完成将改变珊瑚礁恢复领域，从而改善近岸水质，提高珊瑚礁对气候变化和海洋酸化的适应能力。休闲和商业渔业以及旅游业的改善给社会带来了好处。对大学生和职业早期科学家进行跨学科的环境研究培训，以提高国家的STEM工作能力，这将带来进一步的好处。在有性繁殖过程中，游动的珊瑚幼虫必须找到合适的底物来定居和生长。不幸的是，对于控制珊瑚幼虫成功定居的底物特性的作用，缺乏基本的知识。由于气候变化、海洋酸化和其他环境干扰，珊瑚礁在全球范围内正在减少，这一认识差距尤其重要。该项目的目标是解决这些知识差距，并增加对促进幼虫定居和生长的物理和生化线索的了解。这将通过一种包括材料科学与工程、流体力学、珊瑚繁殖、海洋微生物学和珊瑚礁生态学的融合研究方法来实现。为实现总体目标而设计的具体研究目标是：i)定制材料特性，以从天然水力石灰基质中释放有机和离子添加剂，以增强珊瑚幼虫的吸引、附着和定居反应；ii)利用计算模拟和定制振荡水槽中的颗粒跟踪实验，量化流体-基质相互作用、附着和微尺度珊瑚幼虫在不同基质地形附近的传输；iii)结合最先进的材料表征技术和宏基因组学方法，确定基质特性如何在成功定居期间和之后改变珊瑚幼虫的微生物群落和骨骼生长；以及iv)在漂浮修复平台上部署和测试工程底物，旨在防止珊瑚远离低流量、低氧和以藻类为主的海底环境。这项研究的成功完成，有可能改变珊瑚恢复科学领域，促进珊瑚礁生态功能的恢复。关键珊瑚礁资源的恢复将产生许多生态和社会效益，包括支持渔业和旅游经济，以及提供海岸线保护。该项目将为本科生和研究生以及数学、工程、科学、成就(MESA)项目中代表性不足的学生提供融合的、多学科的培训机会。培训新一代科学家跨越学科界限解决社会重大挑战带来的额外好处。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 are large underwater structures composed of the skeletons of corals that support entire ecosystems. They also provide substantial benefits to society that are estimated to total $1 trillion annually. These benefits include providing storm protection to shorelines, as well as supporting sport and commercial fisheries and tourism. Unfortunately, the global loss of living coral from coral reefs has resulted in greatly reduced benefits to ecosystem health and society. Coral reproduces by generating swimming larvae that must find a safe surface on the reef to attach and grow. This process has a low success rate because the underwater surfaces of reefs no longer support juvenile coral survival. Relatively little is known about the how coral reef surfaces influence coral attachment and growth. The goal of this research is to address this knowledge gap and develop engineered surfaces to promote coral larvae settlement through a collaboration of materials engineering, fluid physics, microbiology, and conservation biology. Engineered surfaces will be deployed and tested on floating underwater platforms that are designed to support growing coral attachment and increase survival of coral by increasing water flow and oxygen availability. Successful completion of this research will transform the field of coral reef restoration, resulting in improved nearshore water quality and increased reef resilience to climate change and ocean acidification. Benefits to society result from improved recreational and commercial fisheries, as well as tourism. Further benefits result from interdisciplinary environmental research training for college students and early-career scientists to improve the Nation’s STEM workforce.During sexual reproduction, swimming coral larvae must locate an appropriate substrate on which to settle and grow. Unfortunately, fundamental knowledge about the role of substrate properties that control successful coral larval settlement is lacking. This knowledge gap is particularly critical as coral reefs are in decline on a global basis due to climate change, ocean acidification, and other environmental disturbances. The goal of the project is to address these knowledge gaps and increase understanding of the physical and biochemical cues that enhance larval settlement and growth. This will be achieved by a convergent research approach that includes materials science and engineering, fluid mechanics, coral reproduction, marine microbiology, and reef ecology. The specific research objectives designed to achieve the overall goal are to: i) tailor material properties to release organic and ionic additives from natural hydraulic lime substrates that enhance the attraction, attachment, and settlement responses of coral larvae; ii) quantify fluid-substrate interactions, attachment, and microscale coral larvae transport near diverse substrate topographies using computational simulations and particle tracking experiments in custom-built oscillating flume chambers; iii) combine state-of-art materials characterization techniques and metagenomics methods to determine how substrate properties alter the microbiomes and skeletal growth of juvenile corals during and after successful settlement; and iv) deploy and test engineered substrates on floating restoration platforms designed to keep coral away from low flow, hypoxic, and algae-dominated benthic environments. Successful completion of this research has the potential to transform the field of coral restoration science and facilitate the restoration of coral reef ecological function. Restoration of critical coral reef resources will have numerous ecological and societal benefits, including supporting fisheries and tourism economies, as well as providing shoreline protection. The project will provide convergent, multidisciplinary training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, and underrepresented students in the Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement (MESA) program. Additional benefits result from the training of a new generation of scientists in crossing disciplinary boundaries to solve societal grand challenges.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.