Illuminating Mechanisms of Resilience to Climate Change in Marine Ecosystems

充满活力的珊瑚礁是世界上最具生物多样性的海洋生态系统。他们也是最容易受到气候变化影响的国家。尽管气候变化将在未来几十年对所有海洋生物产生重大影响，但珊瑚礁的未来面临着日益频繁和严重的厄尔尼诺现象等脉冲热应激事件的迫在眉睫的威胁。即使1摄氏度的热应力也会破坏珊瑚动物与其微小的藻类共生体之间的重要联系，导致珊瑚漂白。因为这些共生体促进了珊瑚的生长，长时间的漂白会导致珊瑚饿死。**2015-2016年厄尔尼诺事件引发的热压力引发了有记录以来最严重的全球珊瑚白化和大规模死亡事件。圣诞岛是赤道中部的太平洋环礁，我和我的团队过去十年一直在那里工作，它是零起点。珊瑚礁上的热应力持续了10个月，导致90%的珊瑚死亡。*这一损失是毁灭性的。我们必须从中吸取教训。这一活动为研究以下问题提供了一个难得的机会：1)一些珊瑚如何设法在前所未有的高温压力下生存；2)珊瑚的广泛丧失如何影响生物多样性、生境复杂性和珊瑚礁鱼类群落；3)恢复率，以及哪些因素对促进恢复最为关键；4)整体生态系统的复原力正在发生怎样的变化。我们将通过未来五年对圣诞岛珊瑚礁的深入研究，并将这些新数据与我们在厄尔尼诺现象之前、期间和之后立即在环礁周围的40个监测点收集的丰富的珊瑚、藻类、鱼类和环境数据相结合，来研究这些问题。我们将通过分析太平洋彼岸的珊瑚监测数据，包括不同珊瑚白化历史的地区，来评估圣诞岛洞察的一般性。最后，我们将综合全球海洋生态系统气候变化影响和复原力机制的证据。*我们的工作将为保护海洋免受捕鱼和污染等局部压力是否增强其对气候变化的适应能力的问题提供关键的洞察力。它将推动生物多样性和复原力理论的发展，并将为加拿大提供知识和智力，以开发能够确保我们的海洋为子孙后代具有复原力的管理解决方案。*这项研究计划建立在对水下调查和收集、新颖的3D图像和建模技术、分子分析、遥感以及尖端生物信息学和统计学的创新综合利用的基础上。我将用这些方法培训一大批本科生、研究生和博士后研究员，并将继续我的强大历史，为他们的科学生涯提供不可或缺的技能，包括批判性思维、数据管理、写作和科学交流。

Vibrant coral reefs are the world's most biologically diverse marine ecosystems. They are also the most vulnerable to climate change. Although climate change will significantly impact all ocean life in the coming decades, the future of coral reefs is under imminent threat from pulse heat-stress events like the increasingly frequent and severe El Niños. Heat stress of even 1°C disrupts the vital association between the coral animal and its microscopic algal symbionts, causing the coral to bleach. Because these symbionts fuel coral growth, prolonged bleaching can cause the coral to starve to death. ***Heat stress from the 2015-2016 El Niño event triggered the worst global coral bleaching and mass mortality event on record. Christmas Island, the central equatorial Pacific atoll where my team and I have worked for the past decade, was ground zero. Heat stress on its reefs persisted for ten consecutive months, resulting in 90% coral mortality. ***This loss is devastating. We must learn from it. This event presents an exceptional opportunity to study: 1) how some corals managed to survive unprecedented heat stress; 2) how extensive coral loss impacts biodiversity, habitat complexity and reef fish communities; 3) recovery rates, and which factors are most vital to enhance recovery; and 4) how overall ecosystem resilience is changing. We will investigate these questions through intensive study of Christmas Island's coral reefs over the next five years and the synthesis of these new data with the wealth of coral, algae, fish, and environmental data we collected at our 40 monitoring sites around the atoll in expeditions before, during and immediately after the El Niño. We will evaluate the generality of insights from Christmas Island through analyses of coral monitoring data from across the Pacific Ocean, including regions with variable coral bleaching histories. Finally, we will synthesize evidence for climate change impacts and resilience mechanisms across marine ecosystems globally. ***Our work will provide critical insight into the question of whether protecting the ocean from local stressors, like fishing and pollution, enhances its resilience to climate change. It will advance biodiversity and resilience theory, and it will provide Canada with the knowledge and intellectual capacity to develop management solutions that can ensure our oceans are resilient for generations to come. ***This research program is built on innovative integrated use of underwater surveys and collections, novel 3D imagery and modeling techniques, molecular analyses, remote sensing, and cutting-edge bioinformatics and statistics. I will train a large team of undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows in these methods, and I will continue my strong history of providing them with indispensable skills for their careers in science, including critical-thinking, data management, writing, and science communication.