LTER: Ecosystem controls and multiple stressors in a coastal upwelling system - CCE IV

沿海涌升区沿着所有海洋盆地的东部边界，是海洋中最具生产力的生态系统之一。该奖项是支持加州当前生态系统长期生态研究（CCE LTER）网站在一个主要的上升流生物群落。它利用了为期73年的加州合作海洋渔业调查（CalCOFI）计划，该计划提供了表征该系统气候变异性和变化的基本信息。CCE LTER解决了两个过度的问题：导致沿海远洋生态系统生态转变的机制是什么？变化中的海洋气候、群落结构和生态系统动态之间的相互作用是什么？研究人员正在努力诊断生态系统变化的机制，并制定一个定量框架，用于预测未来的状况，以及这些状况如何影响关键海洋生物资源的管理，包括许多鱼类，无脊椎动物，海洋哺乳动物和海鸟。他们正在培训研究生和本科生，并为教师提供教育机会。与斯克里普斯海洋学研究所桦树水族馆合作的公共项目和外展工作正在提高公众对气候对沿海浮游生物群落影响的认识和理解，并将公众与尖端海洋研究联系起来。该项目通过三个相互关联的焦点增加对突然生态转变的机制的理解：（1）调查海洋热浪及其对生物和群落造成的多重压力，（2）阐明生态化学计量学和多种营养水平对源营养素元素比例改变的反应，以及（3）分析由不同的生物体介导的自上而下的压力。它正在维持对五个核心LTER变量的多尺度测量以及对海洋变暖、分层增加、酸化、脱氧和东北太平洋营养物化学计量改变的反应。研究人员正在多个空间尺度上使用长期的空间分辨时间序列来评估多个时间尺度上的群落变化，新的测量方法允许在更精细的分类水平上进行询问。他们正在结合基因组和转录组学分析进行现场多因素实验（温度、常量营养素、微量营养素、光照、放牧）。这些将补充时间序列测量，为下一代生物地球化学模型提供信息，并测试与生态化学计量和海洋热浪有关的假设。该团队还使用了一套成像技术，分子和形态学方法，以及主动和被动声学方法，以量化垂直结构和共生的有机体跨营养水平和测试假设自上而下的控制生态系统。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Coastal upwelling regions are found along the eastern boundaries of all ocean basins and are some of the most productive ecosystems in the ocean. This award is supporting the California Current Ecosystem Long Term Ecological Research (CCE LTER) site in a major upwelling biome. It leverages the 73-year California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) program which provides essential information characterizing climate variability and change in this system. The CCE LTER addresses two over-arching questions: What are the mechanisms leading to ecological transitions in a coastal pelagic ecosystem? And what is the interplay between changing ocean climate, community structure, and ecosystem dynamics? The investigators are working towards diagnosing mechanisms of ecosystem change and developing a quantitative framework for forecasting future conditions and how these might affect the management of key living marine resources, including numerous fishes, invertebrates, marine mammals, and seabirds. They are training graduate and undergraduate students, as well as providing educational opportunities for teachers. Public programs and outreach efforts in collaboration with the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography are increasing public awareness and understanding of climate effects on coastal pelagic communities and connecting the public to cutting-edge ocean research.This project is adding to understanding of the mechanisms underlying abrupt ecological transitions with three interrelated foci: (1) investigation of marine heatwaves and resultant multiple stressors on organisms and communities, (2) elucidation of ecological stoichiometry and the response of multiple trophic levels to altered elemental ratios of source nutrients, and (3) analysis of top-down pressures mediated by a diverse suite of organisms. It is sustaining multi-scale measurements of five core LTER variables and responses to ocean warming, increased stratification, acidification, deoxygenation, and altered nutrient stoichiometry in the Northeast Pacific. The investigators are using long-term, spatially-resolved time series at multiple spatial scales to evaluate community shifts at multiple temporal scales, with new measurements allowing interrogation at finer taxonomic levels. They are conducting in situ multi-factorial experiments (temperature, macronutrients, micronutrients, light, grazing) in combination with genomic and transcriptomic analyses. These will complement time series measurements, inform next-generation biogeochemical models, and test hypotheses related to ecological stoichiometry and marine heatwaves. The team is also using a suite of imaging techniques, molecular and morphological methods, and active and passive acoustic approaches to quantify vertical structure and cooccurrence of organisms across trophic levels and test hypotheses about top-down control of the ecosystem.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.