The Sick Man of the Sea: Using eDNA to Investigate the Impacts of Human Activities on the Biodiversity and Genetics of Coral Reef Assemblages

题目：利用eDNA的力量调查人为压力源如何影响热带珊瑚礁的生物多样性，这是一个高度多样化的生态系统的例子。珊瑚礁在全球范围内承受着巨大的压力，正在以令人担忧的速度下降。它们的消亡可归因于两个主要压力：热应力和人类活动的直接影响。珊瑚礁支持着大量依赖活珊瑚的热带鱼的多样性，鉴于对珊瑚礁未来的黯淡预测，它们正面临灭绝的可能性。健康的珊瑚礁为热带鱼提供了巨大的生物多样性，但这些鱼类的多样性、丰度和生物量的下降在世界各地都很明显，是珊瑚礁退化的早期迹象。通过监测珊瑚礁上热带鱼生物多样性的不同指标，我们可以了解珊瑚礁生态系统是如何受到不同压力源的影响的，这可以告诉哪些珊瑚礁最容易受到生物多样性丧失的影响，哪些珊瑚礁对保护行动最重要。该项目将利用环境DNA （eDNA）的力量来监测不同珊瑚礁上与珊瑚礁相关的热带鱼的生物多样性。环境DNA是指生物体在自然过程（如死皮）中脱落的DNA，它可以告诉我们在特定地区存在哪些物种。拟议的项目将：1)在“原始”珊瑚礁上建立生物多样性基线；2)研究不同人类活动对珊瑚鱼生物多样性的影响；3)研究其他分子生物监测方法补充eDNA的潜力。

Title: Harnessing the power of eDNA to investigate how anthropogenic stressors affect biodiversity on tropical coral reefs, an example of a highly diverse ecosystemCoral reefs are under enormous pressure globally and are declining at a worrying rate. Their demise can be attributed to two main pressures: thermal stress, and the direct impacts of human activities. Coral reefs support a huge diversity of tropical fishes that depend on live coral, and are facing extinction possibilities given the bleak projections for the future of coral reefs. A healthy coral reef supports huge levels of biodiversity in tropical fishes, but declines in diversity, abundance and biomass of these fishes are apparent all over the world and are an early indication of reef deterioration. By monitoring different metrics of tropical fish biodiversity on coral reefs, we can understand how coral reef ecosystems are affected by different stressors, and this can inform which reefs are most vulnerable to biodiversity loss and which reefs are most important for conservation action. This project will harness the power of environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor the biodiversity of reef-associated tropical fishes on different coral reefs. Environmental DNA is the DNA shed by an organism's natural processes (e.g. dead skin), and can inform which species are present in a given locality. The proposed project will: 1.) establish a baseline of biotic diversity on 'pristine' coral reefs; 2.) investigate how different human activities affect reef fish biodiversity; and 3.) investigate the potential of other molecular biomonitoring methods to complement eDNA.