EAGER: A Multi-decadal Record of Antarctic Benthos: Image Analysis to Maximize Data Utilization

EAGER：南极底栖生物的数十年记录：图像分析以最大限度地提高数据利用率

• 批准号: 1355533
• 负责人: Paul Dayton
• 金额: $ 9.5万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego Scripps Inst of Oceanography
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2016-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1355533&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Multi; decadal; Record; Antarctic

Antarctic benthic communities are characterized by many species of sponges (Phylum Porifera), long thought to exhibit extremely slow demographic patterns of settlement, growth and reproduction. This project will analyze many hundreds of diver and remotely operated underwater vehicle photographs documenting a unique, episodic settlement event that occurred between 2000 and 2010 in McMurdo Sound that challenges this paradigm of slow growth. Artificial structures were placed on the seafloor between 1967 and 1974 at several sites, but no sponges were observed to settle on these structures until 2004. By 2010 some 40 species of sponges had settled and grown to be surprisingly large. Given the paradigm of slow settlement and growth supported by the long observation period (37 years, 1967-2004), this extraordinary large-scale settlement and rapid growth over just a 6-year time span is astonishing. This project utilizes image processing software (ImageJ) to obtain metrics (linear dimensions to estimate size, frequency, percent cover) for sponges and other fauna visible in the photographs. It uses R to conduct multidimensional scaling to ordinate community data and ANOSIM to test for differences of community data among sites and times and structures. It will also use SIMPER and ranked species abundances to discriminate species responsible for any differences. This work focuses on Antarctic sponges, but the observations of massive episodic recruitment and growth are important to understanding seafloor communities worldwide. Ecosystems are composed of populations, and populations are ecologically described by their distribution and abundance. A little appreciated fact is that sponges often dominate marine communities, but because sponges are so hard to study, most workers focus on other groups such as corals, kelps, or bivalves. Because most sponges settle and grow slowly their life history is virtually unstudied. The assumption of relative stasis of the Antarctic seafloor community is common, and this project will shatter this paradigm by documenting a dramatic episodic event. Finally, the project takes advantage of old transects from the 1960s and 1970s and compares them with extensive 2010 surveys of the same habitats and sometimes the same intact transect lines, offering a long-term perspective of community change. The investigators will publish these results in peer-reviewed journals, give presentations to the general public and will involve students from local outreach programs, high schools, and undergraduates at UCSD to help with the analysis.

南极海底群落的特点是许多海绵物种（多孔海绵门），长期以来人们认为它们表现出极其缓慢的定居、生长和繁殖的人口模式。该项目将分析数百张潜水员和遥控水下航行器的照片，记录 2000 年至 2010 年间在麦克默多湾发生的一次独特的、偶发的定居事件，该事件挑战了这种缓慢增长的模式。 1967 年至 1974 年间，在多个地点在海底放置了人工结构，但直到 2004 年才观察到海绵在这些结构上定居。到 2010 年，约有 40 种海绵已经定居并长得惊人的大。考虑到长期观察期（37年，1967-2004）所支持的缓慢沉降和增长的范式，这种非同寻常的大规模沉降和在短短6年时间跨度内的快速增长是令人震惊的。该项目利用图像处理软件 (ImageJ) 获取照片中可见的海绵和其他动物群的指标（用于估计大小、频率、覆盖百分比的线性尺寸）。它使用R进行多维缩放来协调社区数据，并使用ANOSIM来测试社区数据在地点、时间和结构之间的差异。它还将使用 SIMPER 和排名的物种丰度来区分造成差异的物种。这项工作的重点是南极海绵，但对大规模偶发海绵的补充和生长的观察对于了解全球海底群落非常重要。 生态系统由种群组成，种群的生态学特征是通过其分布和丰度来描述的。一个值得赞赏的事实是，海绵通常在海洋群落中占主导地位，但由于海绵很难研究，因此大多数研究人员将注意力集中在其他群体上，例如珊瑚、海带或双壳类动物。由于大多数海绵定居和生长缓慢，因此它们的生活史几乎没有被研究过。南极海底群落相对静止的假设很常见，该项目将通过记录一个戏剧性的偶发事件来打破这种范式。最后，该项目利用了 1960 年代和 1970 年代的旧样带，并将其与 2010 年对相同栖息地和有时相同的完整样带线进行的广泛调查进行比较，提供了社区变化的长期视角。研究人员将在同行评审的期刊上发表这些结果，向公众进行演示，并将让当地外展项目的学生、高中和加州大学圣地亚哥分校的本科生参与帮助分析。