Offensive Sea-Snot

进攻性海鼻涕

• 批准号: NE/X01309X/1
• 负责人: Aditee Mitra
• 金额: $ 10.23万
• 依托单位: CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX01309X%2F1
• 关键词: Offensive; Sea; Snot

Life on Earth is heavily dependent on microscopic plankton that live in our oceans. These plankton (organisms that mainly drift in the oceans) can be divided between 3 types: (1) phytoplankton: microscopic "plants" that make food and oxygen through photosynthesis by using carbon dioxide and energy from the sun (2) zooplankton: microscopic "animals" that eat the phytoplankton and are in turn food for small fish (3) mixoplankton: microbes that combine "plant+animal", photosynthesising (making food and releasing oxygen) as well as eating preyIn this project we are going to explore the lifestyle of the cosmopolitan plankton, Prorocentrum, which form large growth ("blooms") along coasts globally. Prorocentrum are only 0.015mm in diameter; if 160 Prorocentrum are placed next to each other on a ruler, their collective size will equate to 1 mm. Prorocentrum have typically been considered as "plant-like" phytoplankton which produce mucus as "sea-snot" - as a defensive mechanism to deter zooplankton. Blooms of Prorocentrum, in part due to this sea-snot, can affect fisheries causing economic losses in the range of millions of US dollars. Prorocentrum blooms can also have deleterious effects on human health such as acute respiratory problems with asthma and dermatitis, as well as blocking harbours and disrupting tourism. There is a good possibility that blooms of Prorocentrum will become more common with climate change.Recently we have seen that Prorocentrum actively manipulate sea-snot to build traps to capture prey. Therefore, Prorocentrum are mixoplankton ("plant+animal"), not phytoplankton as traditionally thought. Using the traps, Prorocentrum can capture organisms as small as bacteria through to plankton larger than itself; they can thus remove competitors potentially boosting growth of their own blooms. Further, these traps are regularly abandoned and replaced leaving unconsumed microbes captured in the trap to die. These abandoned traps then degrade and/or sink from the surface waters to deeper ocean waters. Our preliminary findings suggest that Prorocentrum form the sea-snot-traps under elevated sea water temperatures (over 15 deg C) and, also in undisturbed waters - both these conditions are expected to increase in frequency with climate change. The concern is that with climate change, Prorocentrum could be expected to form more sea-snot traps which could then lead to longer and sustained harmful blooms. Such blooms have the potential to affect - (i) ocean health including fisheries which could lead to economic losses and also impact food security, and, (ii) human health which in turn could affect the tourist industry and other coastal societal activities. Formation of sea-snot by Prorocentrum as an offensive hunting device is a newly discovered phenomenon. Therefore, we do not have sufficient knowledge about the conditions enhance the formation versus destruction of the sea-snot traps with which to build models. We will explore how the traps are formed under three different temperatures (15, 20, 25 degree C) and the durability of these traps in stable versus turbulent waters. This highly ambitious fast-paced project will be delivered by a team consisting of experts from UK, Germany and Australia; the work will be done in the newly established mixoplankton research hub in Cardiff University. The four team members have unique and complimentary skills required to develop new laboratory methodologies as well as state-of-the-art computer simulation models to study the sea-snot-trap phenomenon. Using laboratory experiments and ecosystem modelling we aim to understand how rising sea water temperatures could provide the cosmopolitan Prorocentrum a winning strategy against their competitors.In this UN Decade of the Ocean, this project will provide the building blocks for future research focussing on prediction of sea-snot-trap forming HABs and help strive towards healthier and sustainable oceans.

地球上的生命在很大程度上依赖于生活在海洋中的微小浮游生物。这些浮游生物(主要漂浮在海洋中的生物)可以分为三种类型：(1)浮游植物：通过光合作用利用二氧化碳和来自太阳的能量制造食物和氧气的微型“植物”(2)浮游动物：以浮游植物为食，反过来又是小鱼的食物的微型“动物”(3)混合浮游生物：结合“植物+动物”、光合作用(制造食物和释放氧气)以及捕食猎物的微生物在这个项目中，我们将探索世界性浮游生物原甲藻的生活方式，这种浮游生物在全球沿海形成了大规模的生长(“水华”)。原甲藻的直径只有0.015毫米；如果在尺子上将160个原甲藻并排放置，它们的总大小将等于1毫米。原甲藻通常被认为是一种“类似植物的”浮游植物，会产生“海鼻状”的粘液--作为阻止浮游动物的一种防御机制。部分由于这种海流，原甲藻的水华可能会影响渔业，造成数百万美元的经济损失。原甲藻水华还可能对人类健康造成有害影响，例如哮喘和皮炎的急性呼吸道问题，以及堵塞港口和扰乱旅游业。随着气候的变化，原甲藻的水华很可能会变得更加常见。最近，我们看到原甲藻积极操纵海鼻虫建立陷阱来捕捉猎物。因此，原甲藻是混合浮游生物(“植物+动物”)，而不是传统认为的浮游植物。使用捕捉器，原甲藻可以捕获从细菌到浮游生物的各种生物，这些生物比它们自身还大；因此，它们可以消除可能促进自身水华生长的竞争对手。此外，这些捕捉器经常被丢弃和替换，让捕捉器中捕获的未被消耗的微生物死亡。这些废弃的陷阱随后从表层水域降解和/或下沉到更深的海洋水域。我们的初步发现表明，原甲藻在海水温度升高(超过15摄氏度)和在未受干扰的水域中形成海鼻陷阱--这两种情况预计都会随着气候变化而增加。令人担忧的是，随着气候变化，原甲藻可能会形成更多的海鼻陷阱，从而可能导致更长时间和持续的有害水华。这种水华有可能影响：(1)海洋健康，包括渔业，可能导致经济损失并影响粮食安全；(2)人类健康，进而可能影响旅游业和其他沿海社会活动。原甲藻作为一种进攻性捕食工具形成海鼻是一种新发现的现象。因此，我们对用来建立模型的海鼻井的形成和破坏的条件没有足够的了解。我们将探索陷阱是如何在三种不同的温度(15，20，25摄氏度)下形成的，以及这些陷阱在稳定和动荡的水域中的耐久性。这个雄心勃勃的快节奏项目将由一个由英国、德国和澳大利亚的专家组成的团队完成；这项工作将在卡迪夫大学新成立的混合浮游动物研究中心完成。这四名小组成员拥有开发新的实验室方法和最先进的计算机模拟模型来研究海鼻陷阱现象所需的独特和互补的技能。通过实验室实验和生态系统模型，我们旨在了解不断上升的海水温度如何为世界性的原甲藻提供一个战胜竞争对手的战略。在这个联合国海洋十年，这个项目将为未来专注于预测海鼻陷阱形成赤潮的研究提供基础，并帮助努力实现更健康和可持续的海洋。

项目成果

Mucus-Trap-Assisted Feeding Is a Common Strategy of the Small Mixoplanktonic Prorocentrum pervagatum and P. cordatum (Prorocentrales, Dinophyceae).

• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11071730
• 发表时间: 2023-07-01
• 期刊: MICROORGANISMS
• 影响因子: 4.5
• 作者: Tillmann, Urban;Mitra, Aditee;Flynn, Kevin J.;Larsson, Michaela E.
• 通讯作者: Larsson, Michaela E.