Ocean Acidification: Coral reef adaptation and acclimatization to global change: resilience to hotter, more acidic oceans

珊瑚礁容纳了四分之一的海洋物种，为世界各地超过10亿人提供食物，工作和免受风暴的影响。珊瑚礁尽管具有高度的生物多样性和价值，但似乎特别容易受到海洋酸化的影响，而海洋酸化是大气二氧化碳增加的后果。 许多钙化的珊瑚礁生物在这种条件下生长速度降低，繁殖受到干扰。同样，随之而来的平均海水温度升高可能导致珊瑚白化，直接杀死珊瑚或增加疾病爆发。综合起来，这些影响可能对许多珊瑚物种来说太大了，无法科普，导致预测这些令人难以置信的生态系统在未来几十年内会退化和崩溃。这项研究考察了八种主要的夏威夷珊瑚物种，它们占整个群岛珊瑚覆盖面积的95%，为数据提供了广泛的相关性。此外，珊瑚包括两个物种复合体，目前正在考虑根据美国濒危物种法列入名单。研究结果将用于制定适应性管理计划，以保护世界遗产Papahanaumokukea海洋国家纪念碑的生物多样性，该纪念碑被誉为地球上最原始和受到高度保护的珊瑚礁之一。该项目在短期、单一物种研究与珊瑚礁社区应对与地球仪其他海洋生态系统相关的全球变化之间建立了重要联系。为博士后学者，研究生和本科生提供培训机会，沿着当地K-12学生的机会。外联活动包括通过互动式K-12教育、与威基基水族馆的互动、高峰时段的电台脱口秀节目、与当地资源管理人员的直接接触以及国际博客广泛传播研究结果。不同的珊瑚物种，甚至同一物种的不同个体，对较低的pH值和较高的温度的耐受性都不同。因此，重要的是要知道环境变化是否太快，珊瑚和珊瑚礁无法有效应对，或者珊瑚的驯化或适应是否会在珊瑚礁的未来中发挥重要作用？长期降低海水pH值和海水温度升高的作用，对珊瑚和依赖于不同的珊瑚礁群落，并生活在其中，他们进行了检查。首先，珊瑚调节pH值在其网站的钙化后，适应范围的海水pH值和温度，使用共聚焦显微镜和pH值敏感的活体染料的能力将进行评估，以了解以前的历史（适应）和固定的影响，遗传差异（适应）对个体珊瑚的能力，以容忍环境的变化。其次，珊瑚适应较低pH值和较高温度的潜力将在为期两年的围隔实验中根据经验进行估计，包括夏威夷所有八种主要珊瑚物种。将描述各种物理环境的特点，并调查各取样地点的重点珊瑚物种的种群连接模式，以评估当地适应的潜力。最后，由于人们对低pH值和海洋温度升高对珊瑚以外的珊瑚生物的影响知之甚少，但这数千种其他物种构成了珊瑚礁生物多样性的大部分，并对珊瑚礁发挥着重要的生态功能，因此，一项为期两年的中型生态系统研究将研究长期pH值降低和温度升高对生物多样性、群落结构、以及生物多样性珊瑚礁群落的生态系统功能。

Coral reefs house one-quarter of all marine species and provide over a billion people around the world with food, jobs, and protection from storms. In spite of their high biodiversity and value, coral reefs appear to be particularly vulnerable to ocean acidification, a consequence of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide. Many calcifying reef organisms have reduced growth rates and their reproduction is disrupted under these conditions. Likewise the accompanying higher average sea temperatures can lead to coral bleaching, directly killing corals or increasing disease outbreaks. Combined, these impacts may be too much for many coral species to cope with, leading to predictions of degradation and collapse of these incredible ecosystems over the next few decades. This study examines the eight dominant Hawaiian coral species that constitute 95% of the coral cover across the archipelago, yielding broad relevance for the data. Further, the corals include two species-complexes currently being considered for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The results will be used to develop adaptive management plans for preserving biodiversity in a World Heritage Site, the Papahanaumokukea Marine National Monument, which is renowned as one of the most pristine and highly protected coral reefs remaining on the planet. This project provides a critical link between short-term, single-species studies and coral reef community responses to global change relevant to other marine ecosystems across the globe. Training opportunities for a post doctoral scholar, graduate students, and undergraduate students are provided, along with opportunities for local K-12 students. Outreach includes broad communication of the findings through interactive K-12 education, interactions with the Waikiki Aquarium, a rush-hour talk radio show, direct engagement with local resource managers, and an international blog.Different coral species, and even different individuals of the same species, are known to vary in their tolerances to lower pH and higher temperature. Thus, it is important to know if the environment is changing too quickly for corals and coral reefs to respond effectively, or could acclimatization or adaptation of corals play a significant role in the future of reefs? The role of chronically reduced seawater pH and elevated seawater temperature on corals and on the diverse coral reef communities that rely upon, and live within, them are examined. First, the capacity for corals to regulate pH at their site of calcification after acclimation to a range of seawater pH and temperature using confocal microscopy and pH-sensitive vital dyes will be assessed to understand the influence of previous history (acclimatization) and fixed, heritable differences (adaptation) on the capacity of an individual coral to tolerate changes in the environment. Second, the potential for corals to acclimatize to lower pH and higher temperature will be empirically estimated in a two year mesocosm experiment including all eight of the dominant Hawaiian coral species. The range of physical environments will be characterized and the patterns of population connectivity will be investigated for the focal coral species across sampling locations to assess the potential for local adaptation. Finally, because relatively little is known about the impacts of low pH and higher ocean temperature on reef organisms other than corals, yet these thousands of other species comprise the bulk of reef biodiversity and perform important ecological functions on coral reefs, a two-year mesocosm study will examine the effects of chronically reduced pH and elevated temperature on the biodiversity, community structure, and ecosystem function of biologically diverse coral reef communities.