Effects of ocean climate change on recruitment of kelp populations

海带栖息在地球海洋边缘的狭窄地带，但它们维持着地球上一些最多样化和最具生产力的生态系统。然而，尽管经过了50多年的实地和实验室研究，关于决定海带种群动态的过程及其对相关群落多样性和生产力的后续影响，仍有许多有待了解的地方。这种限制很大程度上是由于调节海带系统生产力、动态和多样性的过程是由不同海带物种如何在生态和进化时间尺度上与环境变化相互作用决定的。面对迫在眉睫的海洋气候变化，单个海带分类群将如何应对海洋温度上升或营养物质减少？该项目将采用实验室和实地研究相结合的方法来了解温度和营养变化对海带配子体发生、受精和孢子体招募的相互作用。该项目将使用来自加利福尼亚、不列颠哥伦比亚省、澳大利亚、墨西哥、南非和智利的9个海带分类群来测试这些特征的本地适应模式和系统发育模式，并了解种群所经历的压力水平是否决定了区域耐受性模式。该项目将把研究活动整合到莫斯兰丁海洋实验室的新课程中，并将让学生参与实验室和实地研究。这些活动将帮助学生培养良好的实验技能，促进批判性思维的发展，因为它涉及到海藻生活史的比较分析，生活史进化的概念模型，以及气候变化的生态影响。

Kelps inhabit a narrow band of the Earth's ocean margins, yet they sustain some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems on the planet. Despite over 50 years of intensive field and laboratory research, however, much remains to be understood about the processes that determine the dynamics of kelp populations, and the subsequent consequences for the diversity and productivity of their associated communities. This limitation is due largely to the fact that processes regulating kelp system productivity, dynamics, and diversity are determined by how different kelp species interact with environmental variability over ecological and evolutionary timescales. In the face of imminent ocean climate change, how will individual kelp taxa respond to rising ocean temperatures or decreasing nutrients? This project will use a combination of laboratory and field studies to understand interactive effects of changing temperature and nutrients on gametogenesis, fertilization, and sporophyte recruitment of kelp. This project will use 9 kelp taxa from California, British Columbia, Australia, Mexico, South Africa, and Chile to test for local adaptation vs. phylogenetic patterns in these traits and to understand whether the level of stress experienced by a population determines regional tolerance patterns. The project will integrate research activities into a novel curriculum at Moss Landing Marine Laboratory and will involve students in laboratory and field studies. These activities will help students to develop good laboratory skills and facilitate the development of critical-thinking as it pertains to the comparative analysis of kelp life histories, conceptual models of life history evolution, and ecological implications of climate change.