Impacts of rapid environmental change on the reproduction and fertilisation dynamics of marine invertebrates, using an urchin model

人类驱动的环境强迫正在海洋生态系统中产生大规模的变化。极地地区，经历了快速的区域变化，房屋残遗动物群适应了数千年的恒定温度。这些区域提供了应对气候变化的预警系统，因此提供了评估环境变异性对物种持久性影响的独特机会。虽然气候变化影响海洋生物的生理和行为，但人们对环境变化对基本功能（例如生殖）的影响仍然知之甚少。繁殖成功是决定物种持久性和生存的进化机制。因此，重要的是要了解生殖过程如何应对环境变化。在传播产卵器（配子在水柱中释放和受精，即卵子和精子）中，决定配子功能和受精成功的过程决定了繁殖效率。研究表明，种群和环境参数（精子稀释度、精卵比、配子年龄和接触时间;海水温度、盐度和pH值）的变化会改变配子的功能。然而，缺乏关于这些变化如何影响广播产卵者的弹性的机械知识。自2012年以来收集的海胆繁殖时间序列样本将用于阐明环境变化如何：（1）影响南极海胆Sterechinus neumayeri的长期繁殖周期;（2）影响这种环极物种的受精成功和种群持续性。

Human driven environmental forcing is producing broad-scale change in marine ecosystems. The Polar-Regions, which have experienced rapid regional change, house relict faunas adapted to constant temperatures over millennia. These regions provide early warning systems against climate change, and therefore unique opportunities to evaluate the effects of environmental variability on species persistence. Although climate change affects marine organism physiology and behaviour, the impacts of environmental variation on fundamental functions, e.g. reproduction, remain poorly understood. Reproductive success is an evolutionary mechanism that determines species persistence and survival. It is therefore important to understand how reproductive processes respond to environmental change. In broadcast spawners (gametes released and fertilised in the water column, i.e. eggs and sperm), processes determining gamete function and fertilisation-success determine reproductive efficiency. Studies show variation in population and environmental parameters (sperm-dilution, sperm-egg ratio, gamete age and contact time; seawater temperature, salinity and pH) alters gamete function. However, mechanistic knowledge of how these changes impact the resilience of broadcast spawners is lacking. Time-series samples of urchin reproduction collected since 2012 will be used to elucidate how environmental change: (1) has impacted long-term reproductive cycles of the Antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri; (2) affects fertilisation-success and population persistence of this circumpolar species.