OCE-PRF: Cliff Hangers: Investigating Effects of a Submarine Canyon on the Distribution and Behavior of Midwater Animals and their Predators

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。深海开阔海域拥有地球上最大的动物群落。这些群落在很大程度上仍未得到充分研究，但已知它们提供关键服务，包括从表层海洋向深海输出碳，以及喂养具有重要经济和社会意义的鱼类种群和海洋哺乳动物。这些中水动物是连接海洋食物网基础和重要捕食者的关键纽带，捕食者依赖于寻找和利用密集的猎物聚集物。然而，目前关于影响这些重要猎物分布模式的海洋机制或生态驱动因素的信息相对较少。海底峡谷是连接深海和近岸生态系统的海岸线上的常见特征。它们都是生物和人类活动的热点。该项目将结合声学、视觉和生物记录技术，研究海底峡谷对中水群落的分布、密度和多样性的作用，以及随后对顶级捕食者的丰度和栖息地利用的影响。该项目将支持一名博士后研究人员的培训，并通过提供资源进一步发展一个持续支持网络，帮助在STEM招聘和留住妇女，帮助当地具有女性身份的STEM社区大学生转学到当地公立四年制大学。该项目的成果还将在加利福尼亚州圣克鲁斯的西摩海洋探索中心通过双语数字展览与公众分享。深水(200-5000米深)是地球上最大的栖息地，占整个生物圈的90%以上，但它仍然是最不为人所知和最神秘的生态系统之一。众所周知，深海群落提供关键的生态系统服务，包括从表层海洋输出碳，在深海进行固存，并为捕食者提供重要的经济和社会资源以及海洋哺乳动物。然而，目前关于海洋机制或生态驱动因素的信息相对较少，这些机制或生态驱动因素塑造了这些重要的中等营养级动物的分布模式。海底峡谷是一种常见的突发性水深测量特征，它将通常分开的深海和浅海近岸群落聚集在一起，并对沿海海洋动力学和生态系统产生深远影响。峡谷往往是初级生产力和捕食者活动的热点。该项目将调查海底峡谷水深测量对连接这两个营养水平的中水群落的分布、密度、多样性和组成的作用，以及随后对顶级捕食者丰度和栖息地利用的影响。该项目将比较峡谷壁上和水中时间序列上的群落，确定驱动近墙群落变化的海洋学驱动因素和机制，并通过结合声学、视觉和生物记录技术确定捕食者分布和峡谷水深测量之间的关系。目前对深水和陆架群落之间的联系的了解仍然有限，但捕鱼、污染和气候变化等日益增加的人为压力需要从根本上了解这些相互联系的基于生态系统的解决方案。通过调查水深测量、海洋条件、深海中上层猎物及其捕食者之间关系的机制和驱动因素，该项目将有助于解决这一知识鸿沟，其结果将对底层鱼类和海洋哺乳动物的管理和保护产生重要影响。该奖项反映了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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The deep open ocean waters house the largest animal communities on our planet. These communities remain largely understudied but are known to provide critical services including carbon export from the surface ocean into the deep-sea and feeding economically and socially important fish stocks and marine mammals. These midwater animals are the key link between the base of the marine food web and important predators, which rely on finding and exploiting dense prey aggregations. However, relatively little information currently exists about the oceanic mechanisms or the ecological drivers that shape the distribution patterns of these important prey. Submarine canyons are common features along coastlines that link the deep open ocean with the nearshore ecosystem. They are hotspots of both biological and human activity. This project will examine the role of a submarine canyon on the distribution, density, and diversity of the midwater community and subsequent impacts on the abundance and habitat-use of top predators with a combination of acoustic, visual, and biologging techniques. This project will support the training of a post-doctoral researcher and support the recruitment and retention of women in STEM by providing resources to further the development of a continuous support network for local female-identifying STEM community college students transferring to the local public 4-year university. The results of this project will also be shared with the public through a bilingual digital exhibit at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center in Santa Cruz, CA. The deep midwater (200-5000 m depths) is the largest habitat on our planet and represents over 90% of the entire biosphere, yet it is still one of the least understood and most mysterious ecosystems. Deep pelagic communities are now known to provide critical ecosystem services including carbon export from the surface ocean with sequestration in the deep-sea and provisioning predators like economically and socially important fish stocks and marine mammals. However, relatively little information currently exists about the oceanic mechanisms or the ecological drivers that shape the distribution patterns of these important mid-trophic level animals. Submarine canyons are common abrupt bathymetric features that bring together normally separated deep oceanic and shallow nearshore communities and have profound influences on coastal ocean dynamics and ecosystems. Canyons are often hotspots of both primary production and predator activity. This project will investigate the role of submarine canyon bathymetry on the distribution, density, diversity, and composition of the midwater community linking these two trophic levels and the subsequent impacts on the abundance and habitat-use of top predators. This project will compare communities at a canyon wall site and at a midwater time series site, identify the oceanographic drivers and mechanisms driving variability in the near-wall community, and determine the relationships between predator distribution and canyon bathymetry through a combination of acoustic, visual, and biologging techniques. Current knowledge of the linkages between deep midwater and shelf communities remains limited, but increasing anthropogenic stressors like fishing, pollution, and climate change demand ecosystem-based solutions fundamentally based on understanding these interconnections. By investigating the mechanisms and drivers of the relationships between bathymetry, oceanographic conditions, deep water pelagic prey, and their predators, this project will help to address this knowledge gap, and the results will have important implications for the management and conservation of groundfishes and marine mammals.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.