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: 2241907
• 负责人: Katharyn Boyer
• 金额: $ 41.14万
• 依托单位: San Francisco State University
• 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=2241907&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.

海草是提供有价值的生态系统服务的广泛海洋植物，例如为动物提供栖息地，减缓海岸线侵蚀和隔离二氧化碳。该项目研究了海洋状况（海洋酸化和营养污染）如何影响世界上最广泛的海草物种鳗鱼的生长和存活。该项目支持两家西班牙裔服务机构的本科生和研究生的培训，并通过学生交流，并将研究纳入本科课程和一个身临其境的海洋科学学期。这项研究的结果为海草的保存和恢复提供了信息。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局部因素相互作用以介导生态系统功能，尤其是在降解和损失的基础物种（例如海草，珊瑚）中，对生态群落产生了广泛的影响。该项目的主要研究人员使用eelgrass（Zostera Marina）及其相关的Epibiota作为模型系统，以测试OA对动物植物连接的影响如何受到遗传之间和内部不同因素的影响：营养应激和栖息地结构复杂性。这些联系涉及鳗鱼和甲壳类动物和软体动物Epifauna之间的关键共同关系，其中Epifauna以快速生长的藻类为食，可以过度生长并杀死浮雕叶，尤其是当营养污染很高时。 PIS专门关注OA和营养应激如何交互改变Epifaunal草食和营养级联反应，其中捕食者间接驱动鳗草的生长并介导鳗鱼和附生藻之间的竞争。结果提高了对改变海洋条件对生态相互作用的影响的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评论标准来评估值得支持的。