Identifying and protecting coral reef adaptive potential

识别和保护珊瑚礁的适应潜力

• 批准号: 2743362
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2743362
• 关键词: Identifying; protecting; coral; reef; adaptive

The recent unprecedented levels of heat stress have profoundly altered many coral reef communities globally, affecting ~1 billion people whose livelihoods depend directly on them. As climatic conditions become increasingly extreme and thus marginal for coral species, coral reef ecosystems are predicted to barely persist due to increased frequencies of acute thermal stress events. This project is working with NGOs whose long-term goal it is to identify and protect coral reef networks globally that have strong chances of adapting to climate change. This work aims broadly to base these decisions on innovative scientific research that examines the role that evolution plays in rescuing reefs from the effects of climate change. A key challenge here is that high genetic variability in corals is key to their long-term survival, but methods to identify genetic variability at scales large enough to inform conservation efforts do not exist. The emergence of the Allen Coral Atlas, a one-of-a-kind reef mapping technology, provides us with a tool to develop metrics of habitat quality, micro-refuges, and adaptive capacity, as well as newly-launched coral bleaching monitoring and alerts. TNC-Caribbean and partners have also developed the first-ever Caribbean-wide, 4m-resolution benthic habitat maps with 13 standardized habitat classes across the region (http://caribbeanmarinemaps.tnc.org/). Here, we want to develop research to synthesize new information and identify reef networks most likely to adapt to climate change. This PhD project will feed into this process, with focus on exploring metrics for habitat suitability and variables key to "adaptive potential" to help identify networks of reefs (probably in the Caribbean or Indonesia) most likely to facilitate evolutionary rescue of corals. These metrics can then inform spatial planning with Marxan, the most widely used conservation planning tool supporting the design of marine reserves worldwide. This project will work with leading coral reef ecologists, conservation planners and NGO implementers to explore these topics:1. Investigating multi-scale morphological categories of reef types that may indicate adaptive potential in coral reef communities;2. Assessing reef community responses to past thermal stress and projecting their future responses based on mapped morphological categories (and other widely-available datasets); and3. Spatial planning to identify priority areas for managing coral reefs for climate change for objectives that target adaptive potential.The project will use the newly published Allen Coral Atlas data sets (https://allencoralatlas.org/), new 1km sea surface temperature projections, and coral reef monitoring data to determine ways of detecting adaptive or climate resistant coral communities. You will test the idea that reef complexity at different spatial scales can indicate higher resistance, resilience, and/or adaptive potential of coral communities. This question will be approached analytically with spatial analysis (GIS), and by developing models of coral reef responses to thermal exposure. There may be scope to test adaptive potential with molecular tools if interest and funding availability allow. Thus, a strong background and/or interest in quantitative methods, and at good knowledge of GIS and R is required..

最近前所未有的热应激水平深刻改变了全球许多珊瑚礁群落，影响了约 10 亿直接依赖珊瑚礁生活的人。随着气候条件变得越来越极端，珊瑚物种变得边缘化，由于急性热应激事件频率的增加，预计珊瑚礁生态系统将难以持续存在。该项目正在与非政府组织合作，其长期目标是识别和保护全球有很大机会适应气候变化的珊瑚礁网络。这项工作的主要目标是将这些决定建立在创新科学研究的基础上，这些研究探讨了进化在拯救珊瑚礁免受气候变化影响方面所发挥的作用。这里的一个关键挑战是，珊瑚的高遗传变异性是其长期生存的关键，但在足够大的范围内识别遗传变异性的方法并不存在，以便为保护工作提供信息。艾伦珊瑚图集的出现是一种独一无二的珊瑚礁绘图技术，为我们提供了一种工具来开发栖息地质量、微型保护区和适应能力的指标，以及新推出的珊瑚白化监测和警报。 TNC-Caribbean 及其合作伙伴还开发了首张全加勒比地区、分辨率为 4m 的海底栖息地地图，其中包含该地区 13 个标准化栖息地类别 (http://caribbeanmarinemaps.tnc.org/)。在这里，我们希望开展研究以综合新信息并确定最有可能适应气候变化的珊瑚礁网络。该博士项目将融入这一过程，重点是探索栖息地适宜性的指标和“适应潜力”的关键变量，以帮助识别最有可能促进珊瑚进化拯救的珊瑚礁网络（可能在加勒比海或印度尼西亚）。然后，这些指标可以为 Marxan 的空间规划提供信息，Marxan 是支持全球海洋保护区设计的最广泛使用的保护规划工具。该项目将与领先的珊瑚礁生态学家、保护规划者和非政府组织实施者合作，探讨以下主题：1。研究可能表明珊瑚礁群落适应潜力的珊瑚礁类型的多尺度形态类别；2．评估珊瑚礁群落对过去热应力的反应，并根据绘制的形态类别（和其他广泛可用的数据集）预测其未来的反应；和3。空间规划，以确定管理珊瑚礁应对气候变化的优先领域，以实现适应潜力的目标。该项目将使用新发布的艾伦珊瑚图集数据集（https://allencoralatlas.org/）、新的1公里海面温度预测和珊瑚礁监测数据来确定检测适应性或耐气候珊瑚群落的方法。您将测试以下观点：不同空间尺度的珊瑚礁复杂性可以表明珊瑚群落具有更高的抵抗力、恢复力和/或适应潜力。我们将通过空间分析 (GIS) 以及开发珊瑚礁对热暴露反应的模型来分析解决这个问题。如果兴趣和资金允许，可能有空间用分子工具测试适应性潜力。因此，需要对定量方法有很强的背景和/或兴趣，以及对 GIS 和 R 的良好了解。