Reef Breath Testing (RBT): exhaled volatile-gas biomarkers of coral health

本项目旨在揭示珊瑚礁分类群的挥发性气体“指纹”，以及它们如何在空间和时间上诊断健康的珊瑚礁功能。随着环境的变化，所有生物体都会通过生理微调和信号传导释放出不同的挥发性气体。虽然珊瑚礁分类群和珊瑚礁是挥发性气体排放的热点，但产生哪些气体，何时以及为什么产生，完全没有被探索过。该项目联合了一个多学科专家团队，首次将挥发性气体评估、代谢生理学和功能基因组学技术结合起来，以改变对关键挥发性气体如何支撑珊瑚对压力和疾病的恢复能力的理解，这对改善珊瑚礁生态系统管理至关重要。

This Project aims to uncover volatile gas "fingerprints" of coral reef taxa and how they are diagnostic of healthy reef functioning over space and time. All organisms emit distinct volatile gases via physiological fine-tuning and signalling as their environments change. Whilst coral reef taxa and coral reefs are hotspots for volatile gas emissions, which gases are produced, when and why, is entirely unexplored. This project unites a multidisciplinary team of experts to, for the first time, couple volatile gas assessment, metabolic physiology and functional genomics techniques to transform understanding of how key volatile gases underpin coral resilience to stress and disease, which is essential to improve coral reef ecosystem management.