Collaborative Research: modifiers of ocean acidification effects on top-down control in eelgrass habitat

海草是广泛分布的海洋植物，具有重要的生态系统功能，如为动物提供栖息地、减缓海岸线侵蚀和隔离二氧化碳。该项目调查了变化的海洋条件（海洋酸化和营养物污染）如何影响大鳗草的生长和生存，大鳗草是世界上最广泛的海草物种。该项目通过学生交换、将研究纳入本科课程和一个沉浸式海洋科学学期，为两所西班牙裔服役机构的本科生和研究生提供培训。这项研究的结果为海草的保护和恢复提供了信息，并与当地的资源管理人员分享。海洋酸化（OA）等全球压力源在局部环境条件下作用于生物体。为了充分了解压力源如何影响海洋物种，必须测试压力源如何与当地因素相互作用以调节生态系统功能，特别是在退化和丧失对生态群落产生广泛影响的基础物种（如海草、珊瑚）中。该项目的主要研究人员正在使用大叶藻（Zostera marina）及其相关的表层生物作为模型系统，以测试OA对动植物联系的影响如何受到河口之间和河口内两个不同因素的影响：营养压力和栖息地结构复杂性。这些联系涉及到大叶藻与甲壳类和软体动物表生动物之间的关键互惠关系，其中表生动物以快速生长的藻类为食，这些藻类会过度生长并杀死大叶藻的叶子，特别是当营养物污染严重时。pi特别关注OA和营养胁迫如何相互作用地改变脚底下的草食和营养级联，在这些级联中，捕食者间接地驱动大叶藻的生长，并介导大叶藻和附生藻类之间的竞争。这些结果促进了对海洋条件变化对生态相互作用影响的认识。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。

Seagrasses are widespread ocean plants that perform valuable ecosystem services, such as providing habitat for animals, slowing shoreline erosion, and sequestering carbon dioxide. This project investigates how changing ocean conditions (ocean acidification and nutrient pollution) affect growth and survival of eelgrass, the world's most widespread seagrass species. The project supports training for undergraduate students and graduate students at two Hispanic Serving Institutions through student exchanges and incorporation of the research into undergraduate courses and an immersive marine science semester. The results of this research, which inform preservation and restoration of seagrasses, are being shared with local resource managers.Global stressors like ocean acidification (OA) act on organisms within the context of local environmental conditions. To fully understand how stressors influence marine species, it is essential to test how stressors interact with local factors to mediate ecosystem functions, particularly in foundation species (e.g. seagrasses, corals) whose degradation and loss has widespread effects on ecological communities. The principal investigators of this project are using eelgrass (Zostera marina) and its associated epibiota as a model system to test how the effects of OA on animal-plant linkages are influenced by two factors that vary among and within estuaries: nutrient stress and habitat structural complexity. These linkages involve a key mutualistic relationship between eelgrass and crustacean and molluscan epifauna, in which epifauna feed on fast-growing algae that can overgrow and kill eelgrass leaves, particularly when nutrient pollution is high. The PIs specifically are focusing on how OA and nutrient stress interactively alter epifaunal herbivory and trophic cascades in which predators indirectly drive eelgrass growth and mediate competition between eelgrass and epiphytic algae. The results advance knowledge of the effects of changing ocean conditions on ecological interactions.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.