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

海草是分布广泛的海洋植物，具有宝贵的生态系统服务功能，如为动物提供栖息地、减缓海岸线侵蚀和隔离二氧化碳。该项目调查不断变化的海洋条件(海洋酸化和营养物质污染)如何影响海草的生长和生存，海草是世界上分布最广的海草物种。该项目通过学生交换和将研究纳入本科课程和沉浸式海洋科学学期，支持对两个拉美裔服务机构的本科生和研究生的培训。这项研究的结果为海草的保护和恢复提供了信息，正在与当地资源管理者分享。海洋酸化(OA)等全球应激源作用于当地环境条件下的生物。为了充分了解应激源如何影响海洋物种，必须测试应激源如何与当地因素相互作用以调节生态系统功能，特别是在基础物种(如海草、珊瑚)中，这些物种的退化和丧失对生态群落具有广泛影响。该项目的主要研究人员正在使用鳗草(Zostera Marina)及其相关的附生生物群作为模式系统，以测试OA对动植物联系的影响如何受到两个因素的影响，这两个因素在河口之间和河口内不同：营养胁迫和栖息地结构的复杂性。这些联系涉及鳗草与甲壳类动物和软体动物之间的一种关键的互惠关系，在这种关系中，表层动物以快速生长的藻类为食，这些藻类可以过度生长并杀死鳗草的叶子，特别是在营养污染严重的情况下。PI特别关注OA和营养胁迫如何相互作用地改变表层植物区系的草食性和营养级联，在这些级联中，捕食者间接驱动鳗草的生长，并调解鳗草和附生藻类之间的竞争。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为是值得支持的。

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.