Collaborative Research: RAPID: Turning up the heat: El Nino warming effects on top-down control of Tropical Eastern Pacific reef communities

合作研究：RAPID：升温：厄尔尼诺变暖对热带东太平洋珊瑚礁群落自上而下控制的影响

• 批准号: 2350542
• 负责人: Amy Freestone
• 金额: $ 2.41万
• 依托单位: Temple 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: 2023-11-15 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2350542&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RAPID; Turning; up

Species interactions are key drivers shaping marine biodiversity. Recent marine studies demonstrate that predation can be stronger at lower latitudes where water temperatures are higher. With a changing climate, it is important to resolve how environmental forces intensify or moderate consumer interactions and change the distribution and abundance of marine species. Researchers are employing a rapid research response to measure how an extreme event, the 2023-2024 El Niño, will alter consumer interactions on Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) coral reefs. Following up on two consecutive years of experimental data during non-El Niño conditions, they will be able to compare how an extreme event and increased ocean temperatures alter predation and herbivory rates and how this in turn influences marine biodiversity and potential invasion by non-native species. The project builds international research and education by training early-career researchers in marine science including those from under-represented groups. The project develops partnerships and fosters collaboration through an international network, which facilitates shared and integrated marine biosecurity solutions across the Americas, informing management of invasive marine species.Growing evidence suggests that the intensity of interspecific interactions increases at low latitudes. Recent studies along both coasts of the Americas indicate that the strength of consumer effects across latitude increases with temperature, consistent with the metabolic theory of ecology. The hypothesized impact of ocean warming on future trends in top-down control of marine communities predicts that increasing ocean temperatures will increase top-down control by consumers, but the extent to which this will occur in the tropics remains uncertain. The strong spatial and seasonal variation in upwelling that affect both temperature and nutrients in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) make it an ideal region to test how changes in environmental conditions influence trophic interactions and marine community dynamics. For the past two years, researchers conducted consumer exclusion experiments on sessile marine invertebrate communities at ten coral reef sites, distributed along a gradient of upwelling activity in Panama and Costa Rica. By comparing replicated caged (predator exclusion) and open settlement panels at each site along this gradient, this experiment examines the role of temperature and productivity on top-down control by consumers. Here, researchers are extending the duration of this work to utilize the current El Niño as a natural experiment to measure how this extreme event will alter consumer interactions on TEP reefs. The El Niño event forecasted for 2023-2024 (NOAA 2023) is predicted to (a) cause extreme increases in water temperature and (b) alter the intensity and duration of upwelling events. Using two complementary experiments to sequentially test the strength of consumer interactions, (a) 4-month predator exclusions and (b) short-term predator exposure experiments, the project tests the hypothesis that increased temperature and decreased upwelling activity linked to El Niño will increase consumer effects in the TEP. Repeating previous experiments during the current El Niño, provides a comparison for how changing temperature and productivity regimes influence consumer effects on the reef communities. By focusing these experiments in a thermally dynamic region of the tropics, this research directly tests for temperature regulation of top-down processes without the confounds of latitude, while also examining the bottom-up consequences of declining productivity due to weakened upwelling activity.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.

物种之间的相互作用是形成海洋生物多样性的关键驱动因素。最近的海洋研究表明，在水温较高的低纬度地区，捕食作用可能更强。随着气候的变化，必须解决环境力量如何加强或缓和消费者的相互作用，并改变海洋物种的分布和丰度。研究人员正在采用快速研究反应来衡量极端事件，即2023-2024年厄尔尼诺现象，将如何改变热带东太平洋（TEP）珊瑚礁的消费者互动。在非厄尔尼诺条件下连续两年的实验数据之后，他们将能够比较极端事件和海洋温度升高如何改变捕食和食草动物的比率，以及这反过来如何影响海洋生物多样性和非本地物种的潜在入侵。该项目通过培训海洋科学的早期职业研究人员，包括来自代表性不足群体的研究人员，建立国际研究和教育。该项目通过一个国际网络发展伙伴关系并促进协作，促进整个美洲共享和综合的海洋生物安保解决方案，为管理入侵海洋物种提供信息，越来越多的证据表明，种间相互作用的强度在低纬度地区增加。最近对美洲沿着的研究表明，消费者对纬度的影响随着温度的升高而增强，这与生态学的代谢理论是一致的。海洋变暖对海洋群落自上而下控制的未来趋势的假设影响预测，海洋温度的上升将增加消费者自上而下的控制，但在热带地区这种情况将在多大程度上发生仍然不确定。强烈的空间和季节变化的上升流，影响温度和营养在热带东太平洋（TEP），使其成为一个理想的区域，以测试环境条件的变化如何影响营养相互作用和海洋群落动态。在过去的两年里，研究人员在巴拿马和哥斯达黎加的十个珊瑚礁地点对固着海洋无脊椎动物群落进行了消费者排斥实验，这些珊瑚礁分布在沿着上升流活动的梯度上。通过比较复制笼（捕食者排除）和开放的解决面板在每个站点沿着这个梯度，本实验探讨了温度和生产力的作用，自上而下的控制消费者。在这里，研究人员正在延长这项工作的持续时间，以利用目前的厄尔尼诺现象作为一个自然实验，以衡量这种极端事件将如何改变消费者在TEP珊瑚礁上的互动。预测2023-2024年的厄尔尼诺事件（NOAA 2023）预计将（a）导致水温极端上升，（B）改变上升流事件的强度和持续时间。该项目利用两个互补的实验依次检验消费者相互作用的强度，（a）4个月的捕食者排除实验和（B）短期捕食者暴露实验，检验与厄尔尼诺现象有关的温度升高和上升流活动减少将增加消费者对环境影响的假设。在目前的厄尔尼诺现象期间重复以前的实验，提供了一个变化的温度和生产力制度如何影响消费者对珊瑚礁社区的影响的比较。通过将这些实验集中在热带的热动力区域，这项研究直接测试了自上而下过程的温度调节，而没有纬度，同时也检查底部-该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.