Collaborative Research: How do selection, plasticity, and dispersal interact to determine coral success in warmer and more variable environments?

珊瑚礁是成千上万海洋物种的家园，有助于保护海岸线免受风暴破坏，促进旅游业，以及供人类食用的鱼类。然而，珊瑚很容易受到水温升高的影响，水温升高会导致珊瑚死亡。珊瑚礁在变暖的海洋中生存的一种方法是让那些非常适合温暖水域的珊瑚重新填充那些对温度耐受能力较差的珊瑚礁。然而，为了使这一策略成功，更耐温的珊瑚需要能够分散到这些不同的环境中并在这些环境中生存。该项目利用了太平洋国家帕劳的珊瑚礁系统，该系统在短地理距离内自然经历了广泛的温度变化。利用先进的生态和基因组技术，研究小组直接测试了来自帕劳最温暖珊瑚礁的年轻珊瑚是否能被洋流成功地带到帕劳目前较冷的珊瑚礁，并随后在这些栖息地生存和茁壮成长。鉴于这项研究与当地生态的相关性，该小组正在与与该小组一起实习的帕劳科学家一起，通过一份书面报告向帕劳政府传播结果，并通过公开演讲向帕劳人民传播结果。作为这项工作的一部分，研究人员正在维护一个博客，并组织一个结合舞蹈、音乐和科学的音乐系列讲座，以提高美国英语和西班牙语社区对珊瑚礁危机的认识。这个项目的成果为珊瑚保护协会的修复和保护工作以及世界各地的其他工作提供了参考。进化生物学的一个主要问题是，在新环境下，可塑性和适应性是如何相互作用影响生存的。随着与气候变化相关的气温上升对全球物种的影响，了解这些过程变得越来越重要。对于具有远洋幼虫期的海洋生物，包括造礁珊瑚，定居后的时期是适应和可塑性的关键瓶颈，加上幼虫所经历的条件和时间的复杂性，可能会产生结转效应。该项目利用帕劳跨越陡峭环境梯度的珊瑚礁来研究环境变化如何驱动选择和可塑性，并检查珊瑚礁之间的分散是否由于结转效应而限制了跨越栖息地的成功。研究人员正在测试一个重要的假设，即来自更温暖、更多变的环境的珊瑚适应更温暖的温度，并表现出更强的可塑性，但在珊瑚礁之间的分散会产生适应性成本。该团队整合了现场和分子技术，以：1)调查在更温暖和更多变的珊瑚礁上发生的选择程度，2)测试珊瑚移植到更多变的环境中是否通过发育可塑性提高了它们的耐热性，以及3)检查在珊瑚礁上扩散所需的变形延迟是否由于携带效应而导致适应性成本。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Coral reefs host thousands of marine species, help protect coastlines from storm damage, generate tourism, and house fish used for human consumption. However, corals are vulnerable to increasing water temperatures, which can lead to coral death. One way for reefs to survive in warming oceans is for corals that are well-suited to warmer waters to repopulate reefs that have less temperature-tolerant individuals. For this strategy to succeed, however, the more temperature-tolerant corals need to be able to disperse to and survive in these different environments. This project takes advantage of reef systems in the Pacific nation of Palau that naturally experience a wide range in temperatures across short geographic distances. Using cutting-edge ecological and genomic techniques, the team of investigators is directly testing whether young corals from Palau’s warmest reefs can successfully be carried by ocean currents to Palau’s currently cooler reefs and subsequently survive and thrive in these habitats. Given the relevance of this research for the local ecology, the team is disseminating results to the Palauan government through a written report in conjunction with Palauan scientists who are interning with the team, and to the Palauan people through public presentations. As part of this work, the investigators are maintaining a blog and are organizing a music-lecture series combining dance, music, and science to promote awareness of the coral reef crisis across English and Spanish-speaking communities in the US. Results from this project are informing restoration and conservation practices of the Coral Conservation Consortium as well as other efforts worldwide.A major question in evolutionary biology is how plasticity and adaptation interact to influence survival under novel environments. Understanding these processes is increasingly important as rising temperatures associated with climate change influence species globally. For marine organisms with pelagic larval phases, including reef-building corals, the post-settlement period constitutes a critical bottleneck for adaptation and plasticity, with the added complexity that the conditions experienced and time spent as larvae can incur carryover effects. This project leverages reefs in Palau that span a steep environmental gradient to study how environmental variation drives selection and plasticity and to examine if dispersal between reefs limits success across habitats due to carryover effects. The investigators are testing the overarching hypothesis that corals from warmer and more variable environments are adapted to warmer temperatures and exhibit increased plasticity, but that dispersal between reefs incurs a fitness cost. The team integrates field and molecular techniques to: 1) investigate the degree of selection occurring on warmer and more variable reefs, 2) test whether corals transplanted to more variable environments improve their thermal tolerance through developmental plasticity, and 3) examine whether delays in metamorphosis required for dispersal across reefs comes at a fitness cost due to carryover effects.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.