Collaborative Research: modifiers of ocean acidification effects on top-down control in eelgrass habitat

合作研究：海洋酸化效应的调节剂对鳗草栖息地自上而下控制的影响

• 批准号: 2241906
• 负责人: Kevin Hovel
• 金额: $ 52.18万
• 依托单位: San Diego State University Foundation
• 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 2026-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2241906&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; modifiers; ocean; acidification

Seagrasses are widespread ocean plants that perform valuable ecosystem services, such as providing habitat for animals, slowing shoreline erosion, and sequestering carbon dioxide. This project investigates how changing ocean conditions (ocean acidification and nutrient pollution) affect growth and survival of eelgrass, the world's most widespread seagrass species. The project supports training for undergraduate students and graduate students at two Hispanic Serving Institutions through student exchanges and incorporation of the research into undergraduate courses and an immersive marine science semester. The results of this research, which inform preservation and restoration of seagrasses, are being shared with local resource managers.Global stressors like ocean acidification (OA) act on organisms within the context of local environmental conditions. To fully understand how stressors influence marine species, it is essential to test how stressors interact with local factors to mediate ecosystem functions, particularly in foundation species (e.g. seagrasses, corals) whose degradation and loss has widespread effects on ecological communities. The principal investigators of this project are using eelgrass (Zostera marina) and its associated epibiota as a model system to test how the effects of OA on animal-plant linkages are influenced by two factors that vary among and within estuaries: nutrient stress and habitat structural complexity. These linkages involve a key mutualistic relationship between eelgrass and crustacean and molluscan epifauna, in which epifauna feed on fast-growing algae that can overgrow and kill eelgrass leaves, particularly when nutrient pollution is high. The PIs specifically are focusing on how OA and nutrient stress interactively alter epifaunal herbivory and trophic cascades in which predators indirectly drive eelgrass growth and mediate competition between eelgrass and epiphytic algae. The results advance knowledge of the effects of changing ocean conditions on ecological interactions.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.

海草是广泛分布的海洋植物，具有宝贵的生态系统服务功能，例如为动物提供栖息地，减缓海岸线侵蚀，以及封存二氧化碳。该项目调查了不断变化的海洋条件（海洋酸化和营养污染）如何影响世界上分布最广的海草物种-鳗草的生长和生存。该项目通过学生交流和将研究纳入本科课程和沉浸式海洋科学学期，支持两个西班牙裔服务机构的本科生和研究生培训。这项研究的结果为海草的保护和恢复提供了信息，正在与当地资源管理人员分享。海洋酸化（OA）等全球压力因素在当地环境条件下对生物体产生作用。为了充分了解压力源如何影响海洋物种，必须测试压力源如何与当地因素相互作用，以调节生态系统功能，特别是在基础物种（如海草、珊瑚）中，其退化和丧失对生态群落产生广泛影响。该项目的主要研究人员正在使用eelgrass（Zostera marina）及其相关的epibiota作为模型系统，以测试OA对动植物联系的影响如何受到两个因素的影响，这两个因素在河口之间和河口内各不相同：营养胁迫和栖息地结构复杂性。这些联系涉及到鳗草与甲壳类和软体动物表层动物之间的关键互惠关系，其中表层动物以快速生长的藻类为食，这些藻类可以过度生长并杀死鳗草叶子，特别是在营养物污染严重的情况下。PI特别关注OA和营养胁迫如何相互作用地改变表生动物的食草性和营养级联，其中捕食者间接驱动鳗草生长并介导鳗草和附生藻类之间的竞争。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。