Collaborative Research: Biological Baselines for Assessing Environmental Impacts in Antarctica Coastal Areas

南极海岸环境是最近关于人类活动对海洋生态系统影响的研究地点。这项国际合作研究将侧重于开发方法，为南极洲罗斯海地区的近岸底栖生物栖息地生成生物基线。这些基线将有助于进行区分自然环境变化与人为影响的研究，并有助于评估遭受自然和人为压力的沿海海洋种群的恢复能力。这项研究将在特拉诺瓦湾进行，并将与意大利南极计划合作进行。研究将集中在自然撞击地点（融水流）、人为撞击地点（特提斯湾特拉诺瓦湾站附近）和对照地点（特提斯湾原始地区没有融水流）的colbecki扇贝种群。潜水员辅助采集和远程操作的车辆照片调查将提供数据，以确定双壳类动物的大小、频率和密度，以及每个地点从海岸线到深度和距离梯度的底栖生物群落模式。环境梯度也将被测量。双壳类动物的生理剖面将通过在环境和温度胁迫环境条件下的氧气消耗率和氮排泄率的微呼吸测量来生成。生化试验将用于评估代谢活性。生理和生化分析将由意大利合作者进行的细胞生物标志物分析补充。这些生物化学、生理和种群分析的综合将为评估南极沿海地区指示物种对自然和人为影响的反应提供生物基线的例子。

Berkman 9727582 Antarctic coastal environments have been the site of recent studies on the effects of human activities on marine ecosystems. This international, collaborative study will focus on developing methodologies to generate biological baselines for the benthic nearshore habitat in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica. These baselines will be useful to for studies to distinguish between natural environmental variability from anthropogenic impacts and to assess the recovery capacity of coastal marine populations which have been exposed to natural and anthropogenic stresses. The study will take place in Terra Nova Bay and will be conducted in cooperation with the Italian Antarctic Program. The research will focus on populations of the scallop Adamussium colbecki from a natural-impact site (meltwater stream), anthropogenic-impact site (in the vicinity of the Terra Nova Bay Station in Tethys Bay) and control site (no meltwater stream in a pristine area of Tethys Bay). Diver- assisted collection and remotely operated vehicle photo- surveys will provide data to determine bivalve size frequencies and densities along with benthic community patterns across depth and distance gradients from the shoreline at each site. Environmental gradients will also be measured. Bivalve physiology profiles will be generated by micro-respirometry measurements of oxygen consumption rates as well as nitrogen excretion rates under ambient and temperature-stressed environmental conditions. Biochemical assays will be used to assess metabolic activity. The physiological and biochemical assays will be complemented by cellular biomarker analysis performed by the Italian collaborators. Integration of these biochemical, physiological and population assays will provide examples of biological baselines for assessing indicator species' responses to natural and anthropogenic impacts in the Antarctic coastal zone.