Collaborative Research: BoCP-Implementation: The influence of different nutrient delivery modes on functional biodiversity of marine plankton in a changing ocean

所有生物都必须从其生存和生长的环境中获取营养。海洋中的浮游植物及其食草动物也不例外，它们构成了地球上最大的食物网的基础，在全球碳循环中发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，关于海洋生态系统中营养物质输送的不同物理机制如何构成浮游生物多样性和相互作用网络以及它们的营养依赖性的规则，人们知之甚少。该项目研究了这些特定的物理机制如何通过增加混合层的营养输入来影响浮游生物群落的功能生物多样性，从而在不断变化的海洋环境中导致强烈的，但可能是可预测的生物变异性。本研究揭示了不同时空尺度的环境干扰对生态系统功能的影响，阐明了分类生物多样性和功能生物多样性在生态系统稳定性方面的动态关系。从这个项目中获得的关于控制生产力和生物多样性的见解适用于全球许多岛屿和上升流系统。当地合作伙伴参与收集更多观察结果并向Galápagos社区传播研究结果，使系统功能和土著社区因气候变化而面临的问题能够进行双向对话。该项目还为来自代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生以及一名K-12教师提供培训。该项目将实地和实验室研究与建模工作相结合，以评估相互接近的不同营养物质输送物理模式是否对影响浮游生物功能多样性和相关动态的营养物质可用性施加足够的控制。研究地点是赤道太平洋东部的Galápagos群岛，在那里，通过12个月的垂直剖面仪停泊部署，加强了密集的船上采样，以观察i)孤岛尾流和ii)群岛与赤道潜流（EUC）的相互作用以及群岛西侧的上升流。据信对该系统有重大影响的内部潮汐也被观测到。正在测量浮游生物的各种功能特征，如营养获取策略和储存，以调查它们是否被这些输入所选择。巡航和长期观测工作产生了空间调查和时间序列的物理，化学和生物特性。利用从该地区获得的浮游植物分离物进行实验室培养研究，用于量化与营养获取和储存有关的浮游植物功能性状。研究结果为浮游生物NPZ模型的参数化提供了依据，该模型受三种物理模式的养分输送时间序列的影响，用于检验自下而上的控制是否可以解释观测到的分布和时间变化。本研究通过测试功能冗余驱动生态系统稳定性的假设，推进了生物多样性动态和功能生物多样性的生态学理论，通过抵抗变化或恢复来实现。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。

All living organisms must acquire nutrients from their environment to survive and grow. Phytoplankton and their zooplankton grazers in the ocean, which constitute the base levels of the planet’s largest food webs and play an essential role in global carbon cycling, are no exception. However, the rules governing how different physical mechanisms of nutrient delivery to marine ecosystems structure plankton biodiversity and interaction networks along with their trophic dependencies are poorly understood. This project examines how these specific physical mechanisms influence the functional biodiversity of plankton communities through increasing nutrient inputs into the mixed layer, leading to strong, yet perhaps predictable biological variability in a changing ocean environment. This research reveals details on how environmental disturbances of varying spatial and temporal scales affect ecosystem function and elucidates the dynamics between taxonomic biodiversity and functional diversity with respect to ecosystem stability. Insights gained from this program about controls on productivity and biodiversity are applicable to many island and upwelling systems globally. Engagement of local partners to collect additional observations and dissemination of research findings to the Galápagos community enable a two-way dialog about system function and the issues faced by the indigenous community due to climate change. The project also provides training for graduate students and undergraduates from underrepresented groups and a K-12 teacher.This project combines field and laboratory studies with a modeling effort to evaluate if different physical modes of nutrient delivery, in close proximity to each other, exert sufficient controls on nutrient availability that influences plankton functional diversity and associated dynamics. The study site is the Galápagos archipelago in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean where intensive shipboard sampling is augmented by 12-month deployments of a vertical profiler mooring to observe i) an isolated island wake and ii) interaction of the archipelago with the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and upwelling on the western side of the archipelago. Internal tides, believed to have a significant influence on the system, are also being observed. Varying functional traits of plankton such as nutrient acquisition strategies and storage are being measured to investigate whether they are selected upon by these inputs. The cruise and longer-term observational efforts generate a spatial survey and time series of physical, chemical and biological properties. Laboratory culture studies using phytoplankton isolates obtained from the region are used to quantify phytoplankton functional traits in relation to nutrient acquisition and storage. The results inform parameterization of a plankton NPZ model forced by time series of nutrient delivery representative of the three physical modes at play, used to test if bottom-up control can explain observed distributions and temporal variability. This research advances ecological theory on biodiversity dynamics and functional biodiversity by testing the hypothesis that functional redundancy drives ecosystem stability, achieved through resistance to change or resiliency.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.