EAPSI: Comparing Food Webs on Natural and Man-Made Shorelines in Sydney Harbor

沿海城市的海岸线被引入的人造结构严重改变。这些结构支持海洋生物的新组合，但它们对海洋食物网的影响尚不清楚。该项目将使用现代化学技术来表征悉尼港天然和人造海岸线上的海洋食物网。该研究将在城市海洋生态系统研究先驱Emma约翰斯顿博士的指导下进行，他通过广泛的出版记录和向公众传播科学的坚定承诺推动了这一领域的发展。研究结果将有助于深入了解城市海岸线开发对食物网复杂性以及海洋生态系统提供的生态货物和服务的影响。我们将使用稳定同位素分析比较两种类型的城市海洋栖息地内的营养联系：硬底基质（人造海堤与天然岩石海岸线）和软沉积物（人工结构已添加与他们缺席）。与其他沿海城市相比，对悉尼港这些栖息地的研究是无与伦比的;这将使研究人员能够在收集组织样本之前根据过去的文献开发概念性食物网并确定关键物种进行稳定同位素分析。将从悉尼港三个地点的随机样方和沉积物岩心中收集选定的生物，并使用新南威尔士大学的新元素分析仪分析其组织的碳和氮比例。研究人员将使用混合模型来确定每种采样生物的相对营养位置，并得出营养网和同位素生态位计算。研究人员将对不同生境类型的食物网进行比较，以评估人工海岸线对食物网关系和生态系统复杂性的影响。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）和澳大利亚科学院（Australian Academy of Science）共同资助，是东亚和太平洋夏季研究所（East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes）项目下的一个奖项，旨在支持一名美国研究生的夏季研究。

Shorelines in coastal cities are heavily modified by introduced, man-made structures. These structures support novel assemblages of marine organisms, but their impact on marine food webs is unknown. This project will use modern chemistry techniques to characterize marine food webs on natural and man-made shorelines in Sydney Harbor. The study will be conducted under the guidance of Dr. Emma Johnston, a pioneer in studies of urban marine ecosystems, who has advanced the field through an extensive publication record and a strong commitment to communicating science to the public. Findings from the study will provide insight into the effects of urban shoreline development on food web complexity and the ecological goods and services that marine ecosystems provide. We will use stable isotope analysis to compare trophic linkages within two types of urban marine habitats: hard-bottom substrates (man-made seawalls versus natural rocky shorelines) and soft sediments (where artificial structures have been added versus where they are absent). Research on these habitats in Sydney Harbor is unparalleled compared with other coastal cities; this will allow the researcher to develop conceptual food webs and identify key species for stable isotope analysis based on past literature prior to collecting tissue samples. Selected organisms will be collected from random quadrats and sediment cores at three sites in Sydney Harbor and their tissue will be analyzed for carbon and nitrogen ratios using a new elemental analyzer at the University of New South Wales. The researcher will use mixing models to determine the relative trophic position of each organism sampled and derive trophic webs and isotopic niche calculations. Resulting quantified food webs will then be compared between habitat types to evaluate the effect of man-made shorelines on food web relationships and ecosystem complexity.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Australian Academy of Science.