Role of the early benthic phase in regulating the distribution and abundance of marine invertebrate populations.

底栖（即生活在海底的）海洋无脊椎动物，如藤壶、蜗牛、牡蛎、螃蟹和海星的丰度，随着时间（每年）和空间（从一个地方到另一个地方）的变化高达400%。这些显著的丰度变化对自然群落的稳定性和商业捕捞物种的可用性产生了负面影响，但这些变化的原因尚不清楚。越来越多的证据表明，这些差异至少在一定程度上是由于在海底生活的最初几天或几周（即底栖动物早期阶段），这些动物仍处于幼虫或早期幼年形态，其存活率较低（0-40%）且变化很大。然而，目前尚不清楚，种群丰度的变化在多大程度上是由底栖动物早期生存期的差异引起的。这个研究项目建立在我的实验室20多年来对底栖动物早期生态学的研究基础上，将重点放在底栖动物早期死亡的原因和后果上，并将改变我们对底栖动物早期阶段在控制底栖海洋无脊椎动物种群丰度方面的作用的理解。该项目将研究生活在潮间带的动物，包括藤壶、蜗牛、贻贝和螃蟹。该计划的前两部分将直接探讨底栖动物早期死亡对种群丰度的影响：底栖动物早期死亡对种群成熟前的丰度的影响，以及它对物种殖民新栖息地能力的影响。该计划的第三部分将确定低能量储备如何影响底栖动物早期死亡，要么直接通过饥饿，要么间接通过降低个体耐受和生存压力环境条件的能力。最后，该方案将确定气候相关条件的影响，如高温和干燥压力；该项目将研究幼年动物招募时这些条件对随后种群丰度的影响，以及温哥华岛周围的底栖无脊椎动物种群通过进化出不同的早期底栖期耐受阈值来响应局部气候条件的程度。这项研究将为我们预测种群丰度和这些物种可以定居的栖息地类型的能力提供突破，帮助我们理解为什么早期底栖动物的存活率如此之低和多变，并导致预测气候变化对早期存活率和沿海无脊椎动物物种的持久性的影响。

The abundance of benthic (i.e. bottom-dwelling) marine invertebrates, such as barnacles, snails, oysters, crabs and seastars, varies by as much as 400% over time (year to year) and space (from one location to another). These remarkable variations in abundance have negative effects on the stability of natural communities and on the availability of species that are commercially harvested, yet the causes of these variations are not understood. There is increasing evidence that these variations are at least partly caused by low (0-40%) and variable levels of survivorship through the first few days or weeks of life on the ocean bottom (i.e. the early benthic phase), when these animals are still in the larval or early juvenile forms. It is not known, however, to what extent variations in population abundance are caused by differences in survivorship through the early benthic phase. This research program, building on more than 2 decades of research by my laboratory on early benthic phase ecology, will focus on the causes and consequences of early benthic phase mortality, and will transform our understanding of the role of the early benthic phase in controlling population abundance in benthic marine invertebrates. The program will study animals living in the intertidal zone, including barnacles, snails, mussels and crabs. The first two parts of the program will directly explore the consequences of early benthic phase mortality for population abundance: the influence of early benthic phase mortality on the subsequent abundance of the cohort up to maturity, and also its effect on the ability of species to colonize new habitats. The third part of the program will determine how low energy reserves influence early benthic phase mortality, either directly by starvation or indirectly by reducing the individual's ability to tolerate and survive stressful environmental conditions. Finally, the program will establish the influence of climate-related conditions, such as elevated temperature and desiccation stress; the program will examine the effects of these conditions at the time of juvenile recruitment on subsequent cohort abundance, and also the extent to which populations of benthic invertebrates around Vancouver Island have responded to localized climate conditions by evolving distinct early benthic phase tolerance thresholds. The study will provide breakthroughs in our ability to predict population abundance and the type of habitats these species can colonize, help us understand why early benthic survivorship is so low and variable, and lead to predictions of the impacts of climate change on early survivorship and the persistence of coastal invertebrate species.