Functional diversity in extreme marine environments

人类活动对深海的影响越来越引起人们的关注，深海是世界上最大、最不为人知的生态系统的所在地。该方案将在两个生态系统中发展和应用功能生态学方法，以评估对人类活动和全球变化的反应。功能多样性是比较不同生境和地区群落的有用工具。构造扩张脊上热液喷口特有的动物适应了极端的生存条件。一家加拿大公司计划于2017年在南太平洋开始深海采矿，目标是富含金属的烟囱沉积物，这些沉积物构成了长寿地点的大部分栖息地。我的工作积累了数十年关于热液喷口多样性和动物特征的数据，特别是在加拿大海岸附近。我们的工作将开发功能特征方法，以比较Juan de Fuca/Explorer山脊沿线喷口位置的基于丰度的多样性指数。通过在汤加附近的火山口（其中一个有采矿前景）的资助巡航，我们将使用改进的方法来检查高“质量”与低“质量”矿山目标之间的功能多样性。第三个实地地点位于另一个生物地理区域（马里亚纳），在那里同样的技术将支持泛太平洋功能多样性比较。对关键物种的研究，特别是对寄生共生体的大型动物的研究，将扩展已知的功能特征，并促进区域间的比较。我们与其他研究人员合作收集数据并进行测试分析；这将是第一个对热排气系统进行全面功能评估的开放式特征数据库。

There is growing concern over anthropogenic impacts on the deep ocean, home of the world’s largest and most poorly known ecosystems. This programme will develop and apply functional ecology approaches in two ecosystems to assess responses to human activities and global changes. Functional diversity is a useful tool for comparing communities in different habitats and regions. The animals endemic to hydrothermal vents on tectonic spreading ridges are adapted to extreme habitat conditions. A Canadian company plans to start deep-sea mining in 2017 in the South Pacific targeting the metal-rich chimney deposits that form much of the habitat at long-lived sites. My work has amassed decades of data on hydrothermal vent diversity and animal characteristics, especially off the Canadian coast. Our work will develop functional trait approaches to compare abundance-based diversity indices at vent sites along the Juan de Fuca/Explorer Ridges. With funded cruises at vent sites off Tonga (one a mining prospect), we will use the refined methods to examine functional diversity between high versus low “quality” mine targets. A third field site lies in another biogeographic region (Mariana) where the same techniques will support a pan-Pacific functional diversity comparison. Studies on key species, particularly the large animals that host symbionts, will extend known functional traits and facilitate inter-region comparisons. We collaborate with other researchers to amass data and test analyses; it will be the first to make a full functional assessment of the hot vent system with an open access trait database. One important objective is to assess the functional methods in stressed communities. We will also use another rich dataset to test the same approaches in a different low oxygen/high sulphide setting: a hypoxic basin. Here, intolerant species are at a metabolic disadvantage as hypoxia rises and habitat compresses. We will examine the transition of functional and diversity components of the epibenthos and seek break-points where functions change or disappear. Despite the greater threat of expanding low oxygen/low pH zones on the west coast, relatively little work is available on northeast Pacific species to predict responses to the changes brought by a warming ocean. Overall, the programme will help marine ecologists to apply functional approaches by expanding trait databases and testing analytical methods. A better understanding of functional losses in stressed habitats will support selection of management tools. Vent work will contribute to an international effort to develop methods for assessing likely mining effects, particularly in the context of preserving functional and connectivity components in these fragmented habitats.