CAS- Climate: Assessing the potential of artificial upwelling to mitigate coral bleaching during heat waves

CAS-气候：评估人工上升流在热浪期间减轻珊瑚白化的潜力

• 批准号: 2230629
• 负责人: Yvonne Sawall
• 金额: $ 66.3万
• 依托单位: Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-04-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2230629&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAS; Climate; Assessing; potential; artificial

Global warming is considered to be the most severe threat to coral reefs by causing heat stress events that lead to coral mass bleaching and reef degradation. This situation motivates the development of interventions that mitigate coral bleaching, such as artificial upwelling (AU). AU uplifts cool deep water to the surface. The overarching objective of this project is to provide improved understanding of how AU could be used for surface water cooling by identifying AU scenarios (depth, intensity) that mitigate coral bleaching effectively, while imposing minimal risk of unwanted side effects. The project will substantially improve understanding of how AU could be used to mitigate coral bleaching during thermal stress, by providing knowledge about the effects of different AU scenarios (different depths and lengths of AU pulses) on coral performance and on reef community structures. Investigating both short- and longer- term effects on coral performance and also assessing effects on community structures go beyond most manipulation studies that investigate organism-specific short-term responses. The resulting data set will be relevant not only for engineers, but also will provide critical knowledge for the coral reef ecology community about the coral’s ability to persist in a warming world.It is hypothesized that favorable results can be achieved by creating daily short-term thermal relief via pulsed AU (e.g., 5h/day) with waters from the mid- to lower photic zone (e.g., ~30-100 m). The immediate and lasting effects of AU on coral physiology during heat stress will be tested by (1) assessing the short-term physiological effects of pulsed AU treatments on heat-stressed corals, (2) assessing the long-term physiological effects of heat stress and pulsed AU experiments on coral recovery and thermal tolerance, and (3) testing the combined effects of pulsed AU experiments, variable temperature, and covarying environmental parameters on corals and coral reef communities. The project location at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, Inc. (BIOS) is ideal due to its proximity to coral reefs and available research facilities that provide a highly suitable framework for near-natural manipulation studies, including the Bermuda Marine Mesocosm Facility supported by an NSF Facility grant. Students will be involved via existing BIOS-hosted intern programs, including an NSF-funded REU program. Undergraduate and graduate students will learn about the project in BIOS-run university courses. Public outreach will be attained in particular through the development of a new solitaire-like digital game called “EcoChains: Coral Futures”, where players will respond strategically to ocean warming, ocean acidification, sedimentation, outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish, and more in coral reefs. Furthermore, numerous visiting school and university groups will have the opportunity to observe the experimental setup and learn about the project.This project is co-funded by the CBET/ENG Environmental Sustainability program and the Biological Oceanography Program in the Division of Ocean Sciences.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.

全球变暖被认为是对珊瑚礁最严重的威胁，因为它会引起热应激事件，导致珊瑚大量白化和珊瑚礁退化。这种情况促使开发干预措施，以减轻珊瑚白化，如人工上升流（AU）。AU将凉爽的深水抬升到地表。该项目的总体目标是通过确定有效减轻珊瑚白化的AU情景（深度，强度），同时将不必要的副作用风险降到最低，从而更好地了解如何将AU用于地表水冷却。该项目将通过提供关于不同AU情景（不同深度和长度的AU脉冲）对珊瑚性能和珊瑚礁群落结构的影响的知识，大大提高对如何使用AU来减轻热应力下珊瑚白化的理解。调查对珊瑚性能的短期和长期影响，以及评估对群落结构的影响，超出了大多数调查特定生物体短期反应的操纵研究。由此产生的数据集不仅与工程师相关，而且还将为珊瑚礁生态社区提供关于珊瑚在变暖的世界中持续存在的能力的关键知识。据推测，通过脉冲AU（例如，每天5小时），从中低光区（例如，~30-100米）的水，每天产生短期热缓解，可以获得有利的结果。在热胁迫期间，AU对珊瑚生理的直接和持久影响将通过(1)评估脉冲AU处理对热胁迫珊瑚的短期生理影响，(2)评估热胁迫和脉冲AU实验对珊瑚恢复和热耐受性的长期生理影响，以及(3)测试脉冲AU实验、变温度和共变环境参数对珊瑚和珊瑚礁群落的综合影响来测试。该项目位于百慕大海洋科学研究所（BIOS），由于其靠近珊瑚礁和可用的研究设施，为近自然操作研究提供了非常合适的框架，包括由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）资助的百慕大海洋Mesocosm设施，因此是理想的。学生将通过现有的bios主持的实习项目参与，包括nsf资助的REU项目。本科生和研究生将在bios开设的大学课程中了解该项目。特别是通过开发一种名为“生态链：珊瑚未来”的新型纸牌式数字游戏来实现公众宣传，玩家将对海洋变暖、海洋酸化、沉积、棘冠海星的爆发等问题做出战略性反应。此外，许多访问学校和大学团体将有机会观察实验装置并了解该项目。本项目由CBET/ENG环境可持续性项目和海洋科学部生物海洋学项目共同资助。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。