OCE-RIG: Causes and consequences of consumer pressure across latitude

在这个项目中，首席研究员将在从北美洲到中美洲的海草生态系统中进行实地实验，测试探索驱动纬度多样性梯度的基本机制的假设。 最近的研究使用一个简化的模型栖息地表明，在相互作用强度的变化，特别是消费者的压力，可以跨纬度的当代物种多样性模式的一个重要决定因素。该项目将把这些进展从一个简化的模型栖息地转化为一个复杂的自然生态系统的保护重要性，海草床。海草是重要的基础物种，为丰富的生物群提供了复杂的生境，其中包括具有重要商业价值的物种和多种大型藻类，它们与海草一起沿着对沿海初级生产力和养分循环作出了重大贡献。这一生态系统是世界上最受威胁的生态系统之一，但消费者压力等基本生态相互作用如何塑造这一系统中的生物多样性模式仍然是一个核心问题。该项目将探讨消费者压力对物种多样性的影响，在一个复杂的自然生态系统的主要全球梯度，纬度。该项目将北美和中美洲的实地连接起来，并为继续探索大规模生态模式和过程建立基础设施。了解生态系统如何在地理尺度上运作正在成为一个令人兴奋和变革性的研究途径。为了克服在大规模进行标准化实验的方法和后勤挑战，该项目采用多种实验方法，直接比较从温带到热带30度纬度的三个地区的海草生态系统的群落动态。标准化的消费者排除和接触实验将在新泽西、佛罗里达和巴拿马使用人工和天然海草进行。将研究海草及其支持的附生无脊椎动物和大型藻类的多样性群落，以揭示消费者对生态系统结构和多样性的压力的生态重要性。消费者多样性，消费者活动，猎物招募和非生物条件的垂直梯度将被探索为这一大陆规模现象的机械基础。该项目将通过使用既定的国际研究计划作为吸引，激励和教育初中，高中，本科，和研究生水平通过直接密集的研究培训，指导，并动手实地活动。促进科学的多样性是PI的长期承诺，她继续通过坦普尔大学，她的专业协会和当地大学的项目指导代表性不足的群体的学生。通过与天普大学的项目合作，激励和培训女性和代表性不足的少数族裔在STEM领域追求职业生涯，PI将带领初中和高中学生每年前往新泽西巴尼加特湾（该项目的研究地点）。通过实践活动，这些学生将帮助开发一个长期的公开数据集，用作教育工具和研究资源。PI将继续支持费城公立学校的外展活动，通过一个既定的NSF GK-12计划，该计划为当地学生提供服务。该项目由NSF海洋科学研究启动资助（OCE-RIG）计划提供支持，其目标是支持早期职业科学家的创新研究，并增加美国海洋科学工作者和研究社区的多样性。在海洋环境研究所的支持下，该项目将使有前途的早期职业研究人员能够在与海洋科学有关的独立研究生涯中立足，并扩大代表性不足的群体对海洋科学的参与。

In this project, the principal investigator will conduct field experiments in sea grass ecosystems ranging from North to Central America testing hypotheses that explore the fundamental mechanisms that drive the latitudinal diversity gradient. Recent studies using a simplified model habitat demonstrate that variation in interaction strength, particularly consumer pressure, can be an important determinant of contemporary species diversity patterns across latitude. This project will translate these advances from a simplified model habitat to a complex natural ecosystem of conservation importance, seagrass beds. Seagrasses are critical foundation species that provide complex habitat for a rich biota, including commercially important species and a diversity of macroalgae that, along with the seagrasses, significantly contribute to coastal primary productivity and nutrient cycling. This ecosystem is among the most threatened in the world, yet how fundamental ecological interactions, such as consumer pressure, shape patterns of biodiversity in this system remains a central question. This project will explore the effects of consumer pressure on species diversity in a complex natural ecosystem across the primary global gradient, latitude. This project links field sites in North and Central America, and builds infrastructure for continued exploration of large scale ecological patterns and processes. Understanding how ecosystems operate across biogeographic scales is emerging as an exciting and transformative research avenue. To overcome methodological and logistical challenges of conducting standardized experiments across large scales, this project employs multiple experimental approaches to directly compare community dynamics of seagrass ecosystems in three regions spanning 30 degrees of latitude from the temperate zone to the tropics. Standardized consumer exclusion and exposure experiments will be conducted in New Jersey, Florida, and Panama using both artificial and natural seagrasses. Seagrasses, and the diverse communities of epiphytic sessile invertebrates and macroalgae that they support, will be studied to reveal the ecological importance of consumer pressure on ecosystem structure and diversity. Latitudinal gradients in consumer diversity, consumer activity, prey recruitment, and abiotic conditions will be explored as mechanistic underpinnings of this continental-scale phenomenon.This project will broaden participation of under-represented groups in the ocean sciences by using an established international research program as a platform for engaging, inspiring, and educating students at the middle school, high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels through direct intensive research training, mentoring, and hands-on field activities. Promoting diversity in science is a long-standing commitment of the PI, and she continues to mentor students of under-represented groups through programs at Temple University, her professional society, and local universities. By collaborating with programs at Temple University that inspire and train women and under-represented minorities to pursue careers in STEM fields, the PI will lead annual field trips for middle and high school students to Barnegat Bay, New Jersey (a study site for this project). Through hands-on activities, these students will help develop a long-term publicly-available data set for use as an educational tool and as a resource for research. The PI will continue to support outreach activities in the Philadelphia public schools through an established NSF GK-12 program, which serves a diverse population of local students.This project is supported under the NSF Ocean Sciences Research Initiation Grant (OCE-RIG) program, with goals to support novel research by early career scientists and increase the diversity of the U.S. ocean sciences workforce and research community. With OCE-RIG support, this project will enable a promising early career researcher to establish themselves in an independent research career related to ocean sciences and broaden participation of under-represented groups in the ocean sciences.