海洋酸化和暖化下钙化生物能量分配策略和跨世代适应机制—以管虫为例

工业革命以来，人为二氧化碳排放量的持续增加已经导致海水酸度和温度的持续升高。一般认为，海洋酸化和暖化会削弱海洋生物的适应性和生存能力，但是这种观点受到越来越多不一致结果的挑战，表明气候变化对海洋生物的影响比先前认为的更为复杂。由于能量是影响生物健康状况的重要因素，因此，遭受海洋酸化和暖化胁迫的海洋生物可能分配更多的能量用于生殖发育以提升其后代的适应能力，但这种亲本效应是否能在子代持续目前尚不清楚。本研究以管虫为模式物种，通过围隔实验生态系统模拟野外生境，首次结合生物学，地球化学和材料科学等手段研究海洋酸化和暖化下管虫亲本及其子代在生活史各个阶段的生理表现（如代谢率、生长、钙化和身体防御），从而评估管虫跨世代之间的能量分配策略，并揭示其抵抗海洋酸化和暖化的潜在适应机制。本研究可为气候变化如何跨世代影响海洋生物的健康和存活提供新的见解，有助于准确评估气候变化对海洋生态系统的影响。

Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, the continuous increase in anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions has caused a gradual increase in seawater acidity and temperature. While it is generally believed that ocean acidification and warming will undermine the fitness and survival of marine organisms, this view is increasingly challenged by inconsistent results, indicating that the impact of climate change on marine organisms is more complex than previously thought. Since energy is fundamental to the health of organisms, marine organisms may allocate more energy for reproductive development under ocean acidification and warming to improve the fitness of their offspring. Yet, whether this beneficial parental effect can persist throughout the whole life of the offspring remains unclear. In this study, therefore, tubeworms will be chosen as a model species and reared in microcosms with their natural habitat simulated to examine their fitness in both parent and offspring generations under ocean acidification and warming by using the techniques in biology, geochemistry and materials science. Physiological performance (e.g. metabolism, growth, calcification, and body defence) at various life stages will be assessed to evaluate the energy allocation strategy of tubeworms across generations and thus reveal their potential adaptive mechanisms to resist ocean acidification and warming. This research can provide new insights into how climate change affects the fitness and survival of marine organisms across generations, and hence help understand the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems.