RII Track-4: Surviving climate change: The role of adaptation and acclimatization in tropical corals

这项研究基础设施改善RII Track-4赠款将研究珊瑚种群的耐热性。由于水温升高不到2摄氏度，全球各地的珊瑚正在遭受热应力。然而，一些珊瑚生活在更极端的条件下。此前的珊瑚研究表明，反复高温可以诱导造礁珊瑚产生耐热性。这些结果来自于在异常珊瑚礁环境中的少量珊瑚种群，这些珊瑚礁的温度每天都有极大的变化。然而，目前还不清楚这些环境是否比目前认为的要普遍得多，珊瑚礁上是否每天都会出现气温上升的情况。这一结果将为发现常见耐热珊瑚的栖息地提供一个模型。该奖项将为来自罗德岛大学(URI)的早期职业教师和他的研究生提供机会，与宾夕法尼亚州立大学哈克生命科学研究所的教授建立新的合作关系。此外，该项目还将产生一个名为“多样化”的新讲习班和一个K-6珊瑚礁科学工具包，旨在提高未被充分代表的少数群体对STEM的兴趣。因此，这一奖学金将有助于促进STEM领域的多样性，并加强URI和Rhode Island在生物信息学和计算生物学方面建设能力的目标。该项目将检验这样一种假设，即一些珊瑚礁区域反复经历更温暖的温度，因此拥有耐热珊瑚。这项研究将监测广泛的珊瑚礁栖息地和地点的温度模式，并测量最受威胁的珊瑚之一--贝奥比拉珊瑚的耐热性。为了了解珊瑚的耐热性，并获得在哪里找到耐热珊瑚种群的知识，这项研究将使用复制的加勒比海珊瑚礁系统，并测试关于耐热性机制的生理学假说。该项目将具体涉及以下目标：(1)确定具有各种珊瑚礁栖息地的十个珊瑚礁系统的温度变化情况，并测试哪些栖息地和地点有耐热珊瑚；(2)分析群体在相互移植中的表现，审查驯化在耐热方面的作用；(3)确定来自不同栖息地的珊瑚的耐热程度，并利用基因组工具确定珊瑚耐热基因。这些实验旨在测试表型可塑性是否是珊瑚应对海洋变暖能力的关键。表型可塑性被广泛视为进化生态学的一个重要特征。通过操纵性试验，该项目还将量化适应栖息地的种群在不同栖息地之间也可以互换的程度。这项研究将提供关于耐热珊瑚位置的一般规则的有价值的信息，这可能导致在加勒比海范围内对这些栖息地进行搜索。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Research Infrastructure Improvement RII Track-4 grant will study heat tolerance in coral populations. Corals are suffering thermal stress across the globe as a result of increases in water temperature of less than 2°C. Yet, some corals live in more extreme conditions. Previous coral research shows that recurrent high temperatures can induce heat tolerance in reef-building corals. These results have been derived from small populations of corals in unusual reef settings with extreme daily variation in temperature. However, it is not well known whether these environments are much more common than currently believed and whether daily increases in temperature occur regularly on coral reefs. The result will provide a model for discovering habitats where heat-resistant corals may be commonly found. The award will provide the opportunity for an early-career faculty and his graduate student from the University of Rhode Island (URI) to establish a new collaboration with professors at the Huck Institutes of the Life sciences at Pennsylvania State University. Additionally, the project will generate a new workshop called DIVERSE and a K-6 coral reef science kit aimed at increasing the interest of underrepresented minority groups in STEM. Thus, this fellowship will help to promote diversity in STEM fields and strengthen URI's and Rhode Island's aim to build capacity in bioinformatics and computational biology.This project will test the hypothesis that some reef zones repeatedly experience warmer temperatures and, as a result, harbor heat-resistant corals. The study will monitor temperature patterns across a wide range of reef habitats and locations and measure heat tolerance in one of the most threatened corals, Orbicella faveolata. To understand heat tolerance in corals and gain knowledge of where to locate heat-tolerant coral populations, this study will use a replicated Caribbean reef system and test physiological hypotheses about the mechanisms of heat tolerance. The project will specifically address the following objectives: (1) determine profile variation in temperature across ten reef systems with a variety of reef habitats and test which habitats and sites harbor heat-tolerant corals; (2) analyze the performance of colonies in reciprocal transplants and examine the role of acclimation in heat tolerance; (3) establish the degree of heat tolerance across corals from different habitats and determine the genes underlying thermotolerance in corals using genomic tools. The experiments will be designed to test if phenotypic plasticity, widely viewed as an important trait in evolutionary ecology, is key for coral's ability to cope with warmer oceans. Through manipulative trials, the project will also quantify the extent to which habitat-adapted populations are also interchangeable across habitats. The research will provide valuable information on the general rules about where to locate heat-tolerant corals, which may result in the ability to conduct a Caribbean-wide search for these habitats.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.