Collaborative Research: Understanding bioerosion from individuals to ecosystems: the impacts of biotic and abiotic stressors on sponge erosion of oyster reefs.

合作研究：了解从个体到生态系统的生物侵蚀：生物和非生物应激源对牡蛎礁海绵侵蚀的影响。

• 批准号: 2404991
• 负责人: Melissa DeBiasse
• 金额: $ 21.89万
• 依托单位: Radford 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: 2023-10-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2404991&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; bioerosion; individuals

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Oyster reefs, historically one of the most important economic and ecological habitats in the U.S., have suffered major losses due to declining water quality, overharvesting, and diseases. In estuaries across the country, many large-scale conservation, restoration, and research efforts have been implemented to help reestablish oyster reefs. To better understand and protect these ecosystems, this project focuses on understanding the breakdown (erosion) processes that are occurring in areas where oysters are found. Erosion facilitated by living organisms (called bioerosion), such as boring sponges, is problematic for oyster aquaculture and restoration efforts, yet little is known about the processes that influence the rates of sponge bioerosion on oyster reefs. To address this knowledge gap, this research is evaluating two factors thought to affect sponge bioerosion rates: the presence of nudibranchs that prey on boring sponges and ocean acidification. The project uses manipulative experiments and collects sequence data to 1) determine the ways that Atlantic and Pacific boring sponge species respond to predators under different ocean acidification conditions, and 2) compare the short- and long-term effects of predator presence and acidification on sponge bioerosion rates of oyster reefs. The experimental data collected will be used to model bioerosion on simulated oyster reefs to better understand how these two factors influence overall oyster reef carbonate changes. This research informs better management practices for controlling sponge bioerosion for oyster growers, aquaculturists, and restoration programs and improve our understanding of how biotic and abiotic stressors act individually and together to alter sponge bioerosion behavior. This project strategically links undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college (Occidental College) with collaborators at an R1 institution (Louisiana State University), an R2 Hispanic-Serving Institution (University of California Merced), and will incorporate over 40 undergraduate students in various aspects of the project, including intensive field and lab experiences, bioinformatics workshops, and classroom-based projects. Students will also help create open-access materials (both written and video-based) that detail the research methods, protocols, and analyses and all data and code will be made publicly available to promote transparency and reproducibility in science. Results and open-access materials will be broadly disseminated via scientific conferences, peer-reviewed journals, industry meetings with shellfish growers and aquaculturists, and social media outlets.Organism-mediated substrate removal, or bioerosion, has a negative effect on oyster reef growth and resilience; bioeroding sponges are considered one of the most destructive bioeroding taxa in these ecosystems. While many abiotic stressors have been found to influence sponge bioerosion (e.g. acidification, temperature, etc.), the ability of bioeroding sponges to react to biotic stressors, such as predation, remains unexplored. This project uses experimental investigations, transcriptome sequencing, and mathematical modelling of a nudibranch-sponge predator-prey model to evaluate the responses of bioeroding sponges to biotic and abiotic stressors. The research determines how sponges modify their relative investment in chemical and mechanical bioerosion in response to predation pressure and seawater acidification at the phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. The project: (i) explores whether predator presence directly elicits bioerosion as an inducible defense in boring sponges, (ii) quantitatively assesses the phenotypic and transcriptomic response of boring sponges to predation and acidification over different temporal scales, and (iii) determines whether sponge response to these abiotic and biotic factors are similar across phylogenetic and geographic scales. The research advances the scientific understanding of sponge bioerosion in non-tropical, non-coral carbonate ecosystems and examines the ubiquity of these processes across heterogeneous geographic regions. This project has the capacity to transform our understanding of the biotic and abiotic interactions between boring sponges and the ecosystems where they reside.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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。牡蛎礁历来是美国最重要的经济和生态栖息地之一，但由于水质下降、过度捕捞和疾病，遭受了重大损失。在全国各地的河口，已经实施了许多大规模的保护、恢复和研究工作，以帮助重建牡蛎礁。为了更好地了解和保护这些生态系统，该项目的重点是了解发现牡蛎的地区正在发生的破坏(侵蚀)过程。由生物(如枯燥的海绵)促进的侵蚀对牡蛎水产养殖和恢复工作是有问题的，但人们对影响牡蛎礁上海绵生物侵蚀速率的过程知之甚少。为了解决这一认识差距，这项研究正在评估被认为影响海绵生物侵蚀率的两个因素：以枯燥的海绵为食的裸肢动物的存在和海洋酸化。该项目使用操纵性实验并收集序列数据，以1)确定大西洋和太平洋钻探海绵物种在不同海洋酸化条件下对捕食者的反应方式，以及2)比较捕食者的存在和酸化对牡蛎礁海绵生物侵蚀率的短期和长期影响。收集的实验数据将被用来模拟对模拟牡蛎礁的生物侵蚀，以更好地了解这两个因素如何影响牡蛎礁碳酸盐的整体变化。这项研究为牡蛎养殖者、水产养殖者和修复项目提供了更好的控制海绵生物侵蚀的管理实践，并提高了我们对生物和非生物应激源如何单独和共同作用改变海绵生物侵蚀行为的理解。该项目在战略上将小型文科学院(西方学院)的本科生与R1学院(路易斯安那州立大学)、R2拉美裔服务机构(加州大学默塞德分校)的合作者联系起来，并将在项目的各个方面吸收40多名本科生，包括密集的实地和实验室经验、生物信息学研讨会和基于课堂的项目。学生还将帮助创建开放获取的材料(包括书面和基于视频的材料)，详细说明研究方法、方案和分析，并将公开所有数据和代码，以促进科学的透明度和重复性。结果和开放获取的材料将通过科学会议、同行评审期刊、与贝类养殖者和水产养殖者的行业会议以及社交媒体发布而广泛传播。有机体介导的底物去除或生物侵蚀对牡蛎礁的生长和弹性有负面影响；生物侵蚀海绵被认为是这些生态系统中最具破坏性的生物侵蚀分类群之一。虽然已发现许多非生物应激源影响海绵的生物侵蚀(如酸化、温度等)，但生物侵蚀海绵对生物应激源(如捕食)的反应能力仍未被探索。该项目使用实验研究、转录组测序和裸枝-海绵-捕食者-猎物模型的数学模型来评估生物侵蚀海绵对生物和非生物应激源的反应。这项研究确定了海绵如何在表型和转录水平上改变其在化学和机械生物侵蚀方面的相对投资，以应对捕食压力和海水酸化。该项目：(I)探索捕食者的存在是否直接导致生物侵蚀作为枯燥海绵的一种诱导防御；(Ii)定量评估枯燥海绵在不同时间尺度上对捕食和酸化的表型和转录反应；以及(Iii)确定海绵对这些非生物和生物因素的反应在系统发育和地理尺度上是否相似。这项研究促进了对非热带、非珊瑚碳酸盐生态系统中海绵生物侵蚀的科学理解，并审查了这些过程在不同地理区域的普遍存在。这个项目有能力改变我们对枯燥的海绵和它们所居住的生态系统之间生物和非生物相互作用的理解。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。