Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs: Scale Dependence and Adaptive Capacity

标题：合作研究：海洋酸化和珊瑚礁--规模依赖性和适应能力该项目专注于对海洋生态系统最严重的威胁--海洋酸化(OA)，并解决地球上最多样化和最美丽的生态系统--珊瑚礁的问题。这项研究使用法属波利尼西亚的莫雷亚作为模型系统，并利用NSF对莫雷亚珊瑚礁长期生态研究站点(LTER)的投资，利用对珊瑚礁的物理和生物监测作为研究计划的背景，重点研究OA将如何影响珊瑚、钙化藻类和珊瑚礁生态系统。该项目以一个为期四年的国家科学基金会奖为基础，在五个新方向进行研究：(1)为期一年的实验，(2)对20米深的珊瑚礁的研究，(3)将二氧化碳注入水下珊瑚礁地块的实验，(4)测量珊瑚礁生物通过进化和诱导反应改变的能力，以提高其对开放式气候变化的抵抗力，以及(5)应用新兴理论，将对单个生物的研究与对整个珊瑚礁的研究结合起来。通过更好地了解《行动纲领》将如何影响珊瑚礁，将产生更广泛的影响，珊瑚礁是展示气候变化对海洋环境影响的典范，为包括美国在内的沿海地区数百万人提供收入、食物和海岸保护。此外，这项研究将在多个层面上产生广泛和连锁的影响，涉及公众对气候变化影响的认识，以及为专注于科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)职业的美国劳动力做准备。这些效果将通过将研究建立在加州州立大学北岭分校(CSUN)一个为期4年的拉美裔服务校园来实现，在那里，本科生将通过课堂教学和本科生研究经验(REU)机会强烈参与该项目，并将支持博士后、研究生和技术人员的机会。正在进行的高中参与计划将扩大到包括Moorea的K-12教育人员，以及当地学校和CSUN之间的课程计划的整合。该项目重点关注海洋酸化对热带珊瑚礁的影响，并建立在现有4年奖的研究成果计划的基础上，并与Moorea珊瑚礁(MCR)LTER提供的技术、硬件和信息基础设施密切相连。MCR-LTER提供了一个无与伦比的机会，可以与一项关于OA对珊瑚礁影响的研究合作，该珊瑚礁的位置可以说比世界上任何其他珊瑚礁都有更好的仪器和更详细的生态研究。因此，这些结果既可以通过高度的生态和物理相关性联系起来，也可以很容易地整合到试图预测未来变暖和更酸性海洋中珊瑚礁的结构和功能的新兴理论中。现有的奖项涉及莫雷亚的一项研究计划，该计划主要关注珊瑚和钙化藻类的短期生物和生态反应，在中层生态系统和水槽中进行的实验，以及珊瑚礁规模的钙化测量。这一新奖项涉及三项新的技术进步：将首次在可复制的室外水槽中进行为期一年的实验；将使用可复制的水下水槽就地对完全完整的珊瑚礁生态系统进行二氧化碳处理；以及将使用可复制的普通花园栽培技术来探索物种内遗传变异，以应对可再生能源条件。这些工具将共同用于在三个专题领域支持珊瑚和钙化藻类的研究：(1)关于油酸对生长、性能和适合度的长期(1年)影响的测试；(2)测试油酸对20米深处珊瑚礁群落随深度的影响，在那里，与浅水相比，光照条件减弱；(3)通过内在的、物种内的遗传变异性和表型可塑性测试对油酸的有益反应。这些专题领域的一些关键实验将旨在利用综合投影模型(IPMS)将生物体与群落的反应结合起来，并支持使用生态学的新陈代谢理论(MTE)来处理开放式气候变化对珊瑚礁生物及其所建立的群落功能的尺度依赖性影响。

Title: Collaborative Research: Ocean Acidification and Coral Reefs - Scale Dependence and Adaptive CapacityThis project focuses on the most serious threat to marine ecosystems, Ocean Acidification (OA), and addresses the problem in the most diverse and beautiful ecosystem on the planet, coral reefs. The research utilizes Moorea, French Polynesia as a model system, and builds from the NSF investment in the Moorea Coral Reef Long Term Ecological Research Site (LTER) to exploit physical and biological monitoring of coral reefs as a context for a program of studies focused on the ways in which OA will affect corals, calcified algae, and coral reef ecosystems. The project builds on a four-year NSF award with research in five new directions: (1) experiments of year-long duration, (2) studies of coral reefs to 20-m depth, (3) experiments in which carbon dioxide will be administered to plots of coral reef underwater, (4) measurements of the capacity of coral reef organisms to change through evolutionary and induced responses to improve their resistance to OA, and (5) application of emerging theories to couple studies of individual organisms to studies of whole coral reefs. Broader impacts will accrue through a better understanding of the ways in which OA will affect coral reefs that are the poster child for demonstrating climate change effects in the marine environment, and which provide income, food, and coastal protection to millions of people living in coastal areas, including in the United States. Additionally, the research will have broad-reaching and cascading effects at multiple levels associated with public awareness of climate change effects, and the preparation of an American workforce focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. These effects will be realized by basing the research in a 4-year, Hispanic-serving campus California State University Northridge (CSUN) where undergraduates will have strong involvement in the project through classroom instruction and Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) opportunities, and postdoctoral, graduate, and technical staff opportunities will be supported. An ongoing program of high school involvement will be extended to include K-12 educators in Moorea, and integration of lesson plans between local schools and CSUN.This project focuses on the effects of Ocean Acidification on tropical coral reefs and builds on a program of research results from an existing 4-year award, and closely interfaces with the technical, hardware, and information infrastructure provided through the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER. The MCR-LTER, provides an unparalleled opportunity to partner with a study of OA effects on a coral reef with a location that arguably is better instrumented and studied in more ecological detail than any other coral reef in the world. Therefore, the results can be both contextualized by a high degree of ecological and physical relevance, and readily integrated into emerging theory seeking to predict the structure and function of coral reefs in warmer and more acidic future oceans. The existing award has involved a program of study in Moorea that has focused mostly on short-term organismic and ecological responses of corals and calcified algae, experiments conducted in mesocosms and flumes, and measurements of reef-scale calcification. This new award involves three new technical advances: for the first time, experiments will be conducted of year-long duration in replicate outdoor flumes; CO2 treatments will be administered to fully intact reef ecosystems in situ using replicated underwater flumes; and replicated common garden cultivation techniques will be used to explore within-species genetic variation in the response to OA conditions. Together, these tools will be used to support research on corals and calcified algae in three thematic areas: (1) tests for long-term (1 year) effects of OA on growth, performance, and fitness, (2) tests for depth-dependent effects of OA on reef communities at 20-m depth where light regimes are attenuated compared to shallow water, and (3) tests for beneficial responses to OA through intrinsic, within-species genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity. Some of the key experiments in these thematic areas will be designed to exploit integral projection models (IPMs) to couple organism with community responses, and to support the use of the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) to address scale-dependence of OA effects on coral reef organisms and the function of the communities they build.