NSF Convergence Accelerator Track E: Developing Blue Economy from Micro to Macro-Scale in Kelp Aquaculture

在美国，扩大水产养殖的需求被公认为是刺激沿海经济、确保海产品供应、恢复受损生态系统和为全球气候问题提供创新解决方案的一种手段。海藻养殖业正在经历全球繁荣，现在被认为是美国东北部增长最快的海洋产业之一。这些农业经济体的结合有可能促进经济增长，并在我们的气候解决方案中发挥关键作用。该项目将汇集一个由科学调查人员、部落团体和海带农民组成的广泛团队，探索加强美国西海岸海带养殖的方法。项目团队将探索微生物群落及其基因功能在促进海藻健康、营养和工业品质方面的作用，最终目标是确定这些微生物群落是否可以在扩大海藻养殖中发挥关键作用。海藻遗传学在海藻养殖和恢复工作中的作用越来越受到重视，特别是随着海洋变暖。该团队将与加州和阿拉斯加的团队成员召开几次面对面和在线会议，前往海藻养殖场对农民进行微生物取样技术培训，并最终为这一不断扩大的部门制定一份海藻养殖“最佳实践指南”。总体目标是提供一个框架，以加强西海岸的蓝色经济和栖息地恢复工作。这个合作项目的重点是与整个北美西海岸海藻养殖场相关的微生物群落，即微生物群，这些微生物群落尚未得到充分研究，但却至关重要。该项目的目标是阐明哪些物种存在，以及它们在海藻养殖中的作用。具体来说，项目组试图回答以下问题：每种微生物的作用是什么；在微生物环境中，物种之间以及与宿主之间发生了什么相互作用；微生物在环境中是如何变化的。该项目将提高对西海岸海藻微生物群落在分类和功能代谢水平上的时空变化的理解，并将这些知识与海带健康和化学成分联系起来。这将为海带养殖业提供更好的信息，包括养殖场管理和生态系统恢复的最佳实践、最佳养殖场设计和场址，以及提高与海藻养殖相关的理想属性（多糖和海藻酸盐生产、碳水化合物和脂质生产、耐热性和总体生物量产量）的方法。教育外展活动将培训和告知学生和公众。项目成果将与卡西茨纳湾实验室和圣地亚哥州立大学现有的K-12外展活动相结合。社会媒体将被用来突出研究发现，包括一个专门的项目网页和相应的博客文章，这将使这项研究能够达到不同年龄，阶级，种族等不同的人群。最终，将生成一份最佳实践指南，教海藻养殖者如何取样微生物群，以及如何将这些知识纳入他们的农场设计中，以加强从阿拉斯加到加利福尼亚的蓝色经济活动和栖息地恢复。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。

The need for aquaculture expansion in the United States is well recognized as a means of stimulatingcoastal economies, securing seafood supplies, restoring damaged ecosystems, and generating innovativesolutions to our global climate issues. Seaweed aquaculture is experiencing a global boom and is nowconsidered one of the fastest growing marine industries in the Northeastern US. The combination of thesefarming economies has the potential to bolster economic growth and play a key role in our climatesolution. This project will bring together a wide-ranging team of scientific investigators, tribal groups, and kelp farmers to explore ways to enhance seaweed farming along the west coast of the USA. The project team will explore the role of microbial communities and their gene functions in promoting seaweed health, and nutritional and industrial quality, The ultimate goal is to determine whether these microbiomes can play a crucial role in expanding seaweed aquaculture. The role of seaweed genetics is being increasingly appreciated in the field of seaweed farming and restoration efforts, especially as the oceans warm. The team will convene several in-person and on-line meetings with team members in California and Alaska, travel to seaweed farms to train farmers in microbial sampling techniques, and ultimately build a “Guide for best Practices” for seaweed farming that can be used by this expanding sector. The overarching goal is to provide a framework to enhance Blue Economy and habitat restoration efforts along the west coast. This collaborative project focuses on the understudied, yet critically important microbial communities associated with seaweed farms throughout the west coast of North America, the microbiome. The project goal is to elucidate which species are present and what their functions in kelp farming are. Specifically, the project team seeks to answer the following questions: what the role of each microbial species is; what interactions occur among species and with their host in the microbial environment; and how do microbes change in the environment. This project will improve understanding of spatial and temporal variation in seaweed microbial communities at taxonomic and functional metabolism levels throughout the west coast, correlating this knowledge with kelp health and chemical composition. This will provide better information for the kelp aquaculture industry concerning best practices for farm management and ecosystem restoration, optimal farm designs and site locations, and approaches for increasing desirable attributes associated with seaweed aquaculture (polysaccharide and alginate production, carbohydrate and lipid production, heat shock resistance and overall biomass production yields). Educational outreach activities will train and inform students and the public. Project results will be incorporated with existing K-12 outreach activities at the Kasitsna Bay Laboratory and San Diego State University. Social media will be used to highlight research discoveries, including a dedicated project web page and corresponding blog posts, which will allow this research to reach a diverse range of people differing in age, class, race, etc. Ultimately, a Guide to Best Practices will be generated to teach seaweed farmers how to sample microbiomes, and how to incorporate this knowledge into their farm designs to enhance Blue Economy activities and habitat restoration from Alaska to California.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.