LTER: MCR III: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem

珊瑚礁具有巨大的生态、经济和文化价值，但受到自然干扰和人类活动的威胁，包括那些引起全球范围变化的活动。在世界范围内，珊瑚越来越多地被大型藻类或非珊瑚无脊椎动物所取代。法属波利尼西亚Moorea的珊瑚礁提供了一个理想的模型系统，以了解调节生态恢复力的因素，并开发预测未来海水变暖和海洋酸化海洋中珊瑚礁组成和功能的能力。2004年建立的Moorea珊瑚礁（MCR） LTER的总体目标是获得对海洋珊瑚礁生态系统动态和功能的预测性理解。MCR科学通过长期观察、实验和建模来实现这一目标。时间序列数据揭示了用于产生假设的社区结构的变化，这些假设使用面向过程的研究（包括长期实验）进行测试。通过对经验研究的综合和建模，以获得对Moorea珊瑚礁对不断变化的环境条件的响应的新见解，寻找生态普遍性，并推进生态学理论。该项目还将支持一些更广泛的影响，包括：(1)K-12的教学、培训和学习，(2)向更广泛的公众创造性地传播结果，(3)向政府机构和非政府组织提供建议，(4)培训下一代科学家，使他们为全球环境下的跨学科研究做好准备，(5)提供丰富的数据清单，支持世界各地珊瑚礁的比较和综合研究。生态恢复力在MCR III中提供了一个统一的原则，在MCR III中，研究人员将探索群落和生态系统对脉冲干扰（气旋、白化）、人为压力扰动（营养物污染、捕鱼）和缓慢变化的驱动因素（全球气候变化、海洋酸化）的响应。该项目将通过探索2007- 2010年社区对脉冲扰动响应的空间变化模式的原因和后果，扩大对复原力的关注。MCR时间序列揭示了前礁和泻湖之间不同的群落动态和恢复力；受到干扰的前礁正在重新组合成一个珊瑚群落，与受到干扰之前的珊瑚群落非常相似（尽管在回归率上存在空间差异），而一些泻湖珊瑚礁已经从珊瑚过渡到大型藻类。此外，研究人员将估计不同的群落状态如何影响关键的生态系统速率过程（总初级生产、呼吸、净钙化）。了解这些过程的控制将有助于了解它们在未来更温暖、ph值更低的海洋中如何变化。为了预测未来珊瑚礁的群落组成，研究小组将探索珊瑚的特征，这些特征可能会使一些分类群在未来的条件下成为赢家，而另一些分类群则是输家。对珊瑚礁如何在多个空间、时间和生物尺度上对相互作用的环境变化作出反应，以及这些反应如何改变关键生态系统服务的提供，有了更预测性的理解，这就产生了知识上的价值。MCR将通过为K-12教师制定专业发展计划，继续让K-12教师参与Moorea的研究，并为MCR儿童制定课程，扩大其校园教育。的书（库佩和珊瑚），以服务不同的学生读者。MCR的校园将加强与南加州服务不足的学校的接触，其中包括为参加加州大学圣巴巴拉分校MCR项目的学生和教师支付交通费和代课教师费用。MCR团队将继续培训不同的本科生，并作为研究生和博士后培训的资源。这项研究的结果将继续通过出版物为科学界做出贡献，并通过加州大学圣巴巴拉分校和加州州立大学北岭分校的外展项目（例如，加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的研究经验和教育设施，每年向10,000名K-12和公众参观者展示MCR研究）、接受媒体采访、参加公共论坛并向政府官员（包括法属波利尼西亚领土政府）和非政府组织（包括由当地教育工作者组成的Moorea问题协会）提供咨询意见。该项目将加强研究和教育的基础设施。更广泛地说，这个项目将通过加深对人类活动如何改变人类赖以生存的珊瑚礁的恢复力和功能的理解，使社会受益。

Coral reefs have enormous ecological, economic and cultural value, but are threatened by natural disturbances and human activities including those causing global-scale changes. Worldwide, corals increasingly are being replaced by macroalgae or non-coral invertebrates. The reefs of Moorea, French Polynesia, provide an ideal model system to understand factors that mediate ecological resilience and to develop the capacity to forecast the composition and function of reefs in a future ocean of warmer water and ocean acidification. The overarching goal of the Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) LTER, established in 2004, is to gain a predictive understanding of the dynamics and functionality of oceanic coral reef ecosystems. MCR science achieves this goal through long-term observations, experiments and modeling. The time series data revealed changes in community structure used to generate hypotheses, which are tested using process-oriented studies including long term experiments. Empirical studies are synthesized and modeled to gain novel insight into the responses of coral reefs of Moorea to changing environmental conditions, to search for ecological generality, and to advance ecological theory. This project will also support a number of broader impacts including: (1) K-12 teaching, training, and learning, (2) creative dissemination of results to the broader public, (3) advising of government agencies and NGOs, (4) training the next generation of scientists who are better prepared for interdisciplinary research in a global setting, and (5) provision of a rich data inventory supporting comparative and synthetic research on coral reefs throughout the world. Ecological resilience provides a unifying principle in MCR III, in which the investigators will explore community and ecosystem responses to pulsed disturbances (cyclones, bleaching), human-induced press perturbations (nutrient pollution, fishing), and slowly changing drivers (Global Climate Change, Ocean Acidification). This project will expand the focus on resilience by exploring the causes and consequences of spatially varying patterns of community responses to pulsed perturbations in 2007-10. MCR time series has revealed contrasting community dynamics and resilience between the fore reef and the lagoon; the perturbed fore reef is reassembling to a coral community strongly resembling that found prior to the disturbances (albeit with spatial variability in return rates), whereas some lagoon reefs have transitioned from coral to macroalgae. In addition, the researchers will estimate how different community states affect key ecosystem rate processes (Gross Primary Production, respiration, net calcification). Understanding controls of these processes will provide insight into how they might change in a warmer future ocean with lower pH. To project community composition of future reefs, the research team will explore traits of corals that may make some taxa winners and others losers under future conditions. The intellectual merits arise from a more predictive understanding of how coral reefs respond to interacting environmental changes at multiple spatial, temporal, and biological scales, together with how these responses alter the provision of critical ecosystem services.MCR will expand its Schoolyard LTER by developing a professional development program for K-12 teachers, continuing to engage K-12 teachers in research in Moorea, and developing curricula for the MCR children?s book (Kupe and the Corals) to serve diverse student audiences. MCR's Schoolyard will strengthen engagement with underserved schools in Southern California, which includes paying for transportation and substitute teacher costs for students and teachers to participate in MCR programs at UC Santa Barbara. The MCR team will continue training diverse undergraduates and serve as a resource for graduate and postdoctoral training. Results from this research will continue to contribute to the scientific community through publications and to the broader public through University of California Santa Barbara and California State University Northridge outreach programs (e.g., UCSB's Research Experience & Education Facility that exposes 10,000 K-12 and public visitors annually to MCR research), interviews with the media, participation in public forums and advising government officials (including the Territorial Government of French Polynesia) and NGOs (including Association Te Pu 'Atiti'a on Moorea composed of local educators). The project will enhance infrastructure for research and education. More broadly, this project will benefit society by increasing understanding of how human activities alter the resilience and functioning of coral reefs on which humans depend.