2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems Gordon Research Conference

该奖项将提供支持，以进行新批准的戈登研究会议（GRC）题为;中光珊瑚礁生态系统。这些资金将用于为与会者的注册和差旅费提供部分支持，特别强调来自各种背景的会议发言人，初级科学家，博士后研究人员和研究生。2018年中光珊瑚礁生态系统GRC将为这一迅速兴起的珊瑚礁科学领域提供重要的科学和教育论坛。这次会议将能够促进一个多样化的跨学科会议，使世界上许多目前在这一领域工作的科学家，同时也提供了一个充满活力的论坛，以招募新的研究人员和扩大该领域的多样性。气候变化将在未来几十年继续影响浅水珊瑚礁，但我们对MCE在浅水对应物的恢复力中的作用知之甚少。浅水和中光珊瑚礁之间的物理和生物连通性对于理解我们甚至没有掌握世界各地MCE的范围和生物多样性的时候至关重要。这种支持将有助于这一不断发展的研究领域在一些核心问题背后凝聚力量，并在学科、性别和种族方面实现多样化。中光珊瑚礁生态系统（MCEs）是一种独特的、未被充分研究的生态系统，其特征是低光适应的深礁群落，分布在~30- 150米处。这些珊瑚礁通常远离人为压力源，并低于大多数自然干扰的深度限制。据初步估计，可用于发展MCE的生境是已知的浅水珊瑚礁面积（30米）的3至10倍。因此，MCE越来越多地被认为是目前受气候变化相关压力影响的各种浅礁物种的潜在重要避难所。因此，有一个关键需要解决许多问题的结构和功能的MCE社区本身的权利，但也在最广泛的意义上，包括他们的作用，在浅水珊瑚礁社区的恢复能力，环境的侮辱。研究MCE的科学家群体正在迅速增长，其中包括珊瑚礁生态学家、分子生物学家、海洋学家、生理学家、生物化学家、古气候学家、渔业生物学家、微生物学家、化学生态学家、种群遗传学家和对资源保护感兴趣的管理人员。该研讨会将汇集来自世界各地的专家，以及学生和博士后研究人员，提出新的数据，并评估支持控制全球MCE社区结构和功能的多个因素的证据。鉴于越来越多的研究人员将研究时间投入到珊瑚礁生态学和生物学这一新领域，以及越来越多的研究生和博士后研究人员参与，GRC预计将吸引来自世界各地的至少150名参与者。此外，MCE代表了一种独特的生物物理梯度，吸引了其他领域的研究人员在这些自然实验室中解决遗传，生物化学和生理水平的适应问题。

This award will provide support to conduct a newly approved Gordon Research Conference (GRC) entitled; Mesophotic Coral reef Ecosystems. The funds will be used to provide partial support for the registration and travel costs of conference attendees with special emphasis on conference speakers, junior scientists, post-doctoral researchers and graduate students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The 2018 Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems GRC will provide a significant scientific and educational forum for this rapidly emerging field of coral reef science. This conference will be able to foster a diverse interdisciplinary meeting that brings many of the world's current scientists working in this field while also providing a dynamic forum to recruit new investigators and broaden diversity in the field. Climate change will continue to affect shallow coral reefs for decades to come but we know very little about the role(s) of MCEs in the resilience of their shallow water counterparts. The physical and biological connectivity between shallow and mesophotic reefs is essential to understand at a time when we do not even have a grasp of the extent and biodiversity of MCEs around the world. The support will help this growing field of researchers to coalesce behind some central questions and diversify in terms of discipline, gender and race. The GRC organizers anticipate this will result in an improved global network of mesophotic coral reef scientists that will be able to engage in interdisciplinary studies to answer critical questions on MCEs in a collaborative way.Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems (MCEs) are unique and understudied ecosystems characterized as low-light adapted deep reef communities that occur from ~30-150m. These reefs are typically further offshore from anthropogenic stressors and are below the depth limits of most natural disturbances. The habitat available for the development of MCEs has been variably estimated at three to ten times the known areal extent of shallow coral reefs (30 m). As a result, MCEs are increasingly recognized as potentially important refugia for a variety of shallow reef species currently impacted by climate change related stressors. Therefore, there is a critical need to address many questions regarding the structure and function of MCE communities in their own right, but also in the broadest sense that includes their role in the resilience of shallow coral reef communities to environmental insults. The group of scientists studying MCEs is growing rapidly and includes coral reef ecologists, molecular biologists, oceanographers, physiologists, biogeochemists, paleo-climatologists, fisheries biologists, microbiologists, chemical ecologists, population geneticists and managers interested in resource conservation. This GRC will assemble experts from around the world, as well as students and post-doctoral researchers, to present new data and evaluate the evidence supporting the multiple factors controlling the structure and function of MCE communities worldwide. Given the increasing number of investigators devoting research time to this new field of coral reef ecology and biology, and the increasing number of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers involved, the GRC expect to attract a minimum of 150 participants from around the world. Moreover, MCEs represent a unique biophysical gradient that is attracting researchers from other fields to address issues of adaptation at the genetic, biochemical, and physiological levels in these natural laboratories.