SD4: Improved understanding of population, community and ecosystem impacts of ocean acidification for commercially important species

预测海洋酸化对渔业的影响是一个迅速发展的领域。该项目由可持续水产养殖研究中心（斯旺西）、埃克塞特大学和斯特拉斯克莱德大学以及普利茅斯海洋实验室共同开展，将采用全面的多学科方法解决这些挑战。我们将使用位于斯旺西的大型（750平方米的地板，150立方米的水）最先进的可持续水产养殖研究中心，研究双壳类、甲壳类和鳍鱼等商业上重要的例子的生理和生活史反应，这些生物及其活的食物项目可以在相同的条件下生长。我们将比较所选生物在不同酸度和温度下的生理和生长情况（酸度增加与二氧化碳浓度升高和全球变暖有关）。将扩大这些实验的产出，以确定在人口和社区一级的影响。然后将探讨这些变化对捕鱼业的影响。然而，OA不仅会影响商业上重要的物种，因此还将研究海洋生态系统变化对社会的更广泛影响。OA预计将特别影响生殖和生命早期阶段；我们的研究将集中在前2-4个月的卵子受精和生长。这些阶段可能是酸临界（例如精子游动对酸水平敏感），并且由于其高表面积：体积比和较差的补偿内部酸度变化的能力，最容易受到外部环境的影响。早期形成的外壳和骨骼结构也容易受到酸变化的影响。OA还将通过改变食物有机体而产生直接和间接的影响。虽然不可能改变饲料种类组成，但我们将在不同酸度水平和温度下培养浮游植物、浮游动物和其他目标动物，以考虑在它们最敏感的时期对食物链的影响。这将使我们能够考虑食物数量和质量变化的潜在协同效应，食物转化为生长和能量的效率，以及食物链的支持。在幼年期继续进行这些研究将为OA对细胞生长最敏感阶段的影响提供数据。在生命早期阶段的研究中获得的结果将通过更详细的研究来补充，以确定导致生物体易受酸度和温度变化影响的生物机制。实验数据将用于建立生物生长模型，这将为我们未来对其他物种OA的理解提供坚实的基础。在从其他OA项目收集的数据的支持下，这些模型将与那些能够探讨鱼类种群变化对渔业造成的社会和经济后果的模型联系起来。这类估算的现有模型尚处于起步阶段，但本项目将整合将渔业生产与整个生态系统生态联系起来的新发展，以改进经典但过于简单化的渔业模型。考虑到全球气候变化和OA的影响，这一点尤其重要，因为生物与其环境之间存在多种相互作用。利用这项研究和其他OA项目的研究结果，我们将探讨OA对海洋生态系统的更广泛影响。这些将用于审查我们从海洋环境中获得的利益如何变化（例如，为水产养殖和娱乐活动提供清洁水、健康利益以及调节气体和气候）以及这些利益的价值如何变化。这些变化对行业和社会意味着什么将被探讨。

Predicting the impacts of ocean acidification (OA) upon fisheries is a rapidly evolving sphere of interest. This project, conducted between the Centre of Sustainable Aquaculture Research (Swansea), Exeter and Strathclyde Universities, and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, will address these challenges using a holistic multi-disciplinary approach. We will examine the physiological and life history responses of commercially important examples of bivalves, crustacea and finfish, using the large (750 m2 floor, 150 m3 water) state-of-the-art Centre for Sustainable Aquaculture Research at Swansea in which these organisms, together with their live food items, can be grown under the same conditions. We will compare the physiology and growth of the selected organisms at different water acidity and temperatures (increased acidity being associated with elevated CO2 and global warming). The output from these experiments will be scaled-up to identify effects at population and community levels. The consequences of these changes for the fishing industry will then be explored. OA, however, will not only affect commercially important species, and so the wider impacts for society of changes in marine ecosystems will also be examined. OA is expected to affect reproduction and early life stages in particular; our research will focus on egg fertilization and growth over the first 2-4 months. These stages can be acid-critical (e.g. sperm swimming is sensitive to acid levels) and are the most susceptible to the external environment due to their high surface-area: volume ratio and poor ability to compensate for changes in internal acidity. Early formation of shell and skeletal structures are also vulnerable to acid changes. OA will also provide direct and indirect effects through changes to food organisms. While it is not possible to change feed species composition, we will grow phytoplankton, zooplankton and other target animals to consider food chain impacts at different acidity levels and temperatures during their most sensitive period. This will enable us to consider the potentially synergistic effects of changes to food quantity and quality, the efficiency of food conversion into growth and energy, and the support of the food chain. Continuing these studies into juvenile stages will provide data for the impact of OA upon the most sensitive stages of cell growth. The results obtained during the studies of early life stages will be complemented by more detailed studies to identify the biological mechanisms that result in an organism's vulnerability to acidity and temperature change. Data from experiments will be used to develop models of organism growth which will provide a sound base for the future development of our understanding of OA upon other species. Supported with data collected from other OA projects, these models will then be developed to link with models that can explore the social and economic consequences to the fishing industry resulting from changes in fish populations. Existing models for such estimates are in their infancy but this project will integrate new developments that relate fisheries production to whole ecosystem ecology to improve upon classic, but simplistic, fisheries models. This is especially important when considering the impacts of global climate change and OA because of the varied interactions between organisms and their environment. Using the findings generated by this study and those arising from other OA projects, the wider impacts of OA on marine ecosystems will be explored. These will be used to examine how the benefits we obtain from the marine environment change (e.g. the availability of clean water for aquaculture and recreational activities, health benefits, and the regulation of gases and climate) and how the value of these benefits change. What these changes mean for industry and society will be explored.