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: 2350541
• 负责人: Mark Torchin
• 金额: $ 15.64万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution
• 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=2350541&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.

物种相互作用是塑造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，捕食行为可能更强烈。随着气候变化，解决环境力量如何加强或缓和消费者互动以及如何改变海洋物种的分布和丰度的问题非常重要。研究人员正在采用快速研究响应来衡量 2023-2024 年厄尔尼诺这一极端事件将如何改变热带东太平洋 (TEP) 珊瑚礁上的消费者互动。根据连续两年的非厄尔尼诺条件下的实验数据，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领域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）来建立国际研究和教育。该项目通过国际网络发展伙伴关系并促进合作，促进整个美洲共享和综合的海洋生物安全解决方案，为入侵海洋物种的管理提供信息。越来越多的证据表明，低纬度地区种间相互作用的强度增加。美洲两岸最近的研究表明，跨纬度消费者效应的强度随着温度的升高而增加，这与生态学的代谢理论一致。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，海洋温度的升高将增加消费者自上而下的控制，但这种情况在热带地区发生的程度仍不确定。上升流的强烈空间和季节变化会影响热带东太平洋（TEP）的温度和营养物质，使其成为测试环境条件变化如何影响营养相互作用和海洋群落动态的理想区域。在过去的两年里，研究人员对十个珊瑚礁地点的固着海洋无脊椎动物群落进行了消费者排除实验，这些珊瑚礁地点沿着巴拿马和哥斯达黎加的上升流活动梯度分布。通过比较沿该梯度每个地点复制的笼式（捕食者排除）和开放式定居面板，该实验研究了温度和生产力对消费者自上而下控制的作用。在这里，研究人员正在延长这项工作的持续时间，利用当前的厄尔尼诺现象作为自然实验来测量这一极端事件将如何改变 TEP 珊瑚礁上的消费者互动。预计 2023 年至 2024 年的厄尔尼诺事件 (NOAA 2023) 预计将 (a) 导致水温急剧上升，以及 (b) 改变上升流事件的强度和持续时间。该项目使用两个互补实验依次测试消费者互动的强度，即（a）4个月捕食者排除和（b）短期捕食者暴露实验，测试了与厄尔尼诺现象相关的温度升高和上升流活动减少将增加TEP中消费者影响的假设。在当前的厄尔尼诺现象期间重复之前的实验，比较了温度和生产力状况的变化如何影响消费者对珊瑚礁群落的影响。通过将这些实验集中在热带的热动态区域，这项研究直接测试了自上而下过程的温度调节，不受纬度的影响，同时还研究了由于上升流活动减弱而导致生产力下降的自下而上的后果。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智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。