CAREER: Fish-derived nutrients in a coral reef ecosystem - impacts on benthic communities and importance for coral restoration

职业：珊瑚礁生态系统中鱼类来源的营养物质 - 对底栖群落的影响以及对珊瑚恢复的重要性

• 批准号: 1547952
• 负责人: Deron Burkepile
• 金额: $ 83.13万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2022-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1547952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Fish; derived; nutrients; coral

Coral reefs are currently imperiled from a variety of human-induced threats from climate change, coral diseases, overexploitation of important fish species, and enrichment with excessive amounts of nutrients. These threats can result in the decline in corals and fishes and the rise in seaweeds, turning coral reefs into seaweed reefs. One important aspect of understanding how human-mediated changes impact the ecology of reefs is to understand how fishes impact important nutrient cycles on reefs. The investigators prior research suggests that fishes may be one of the most important sources of nitrogen and phosphorus on reefs via their daily excretions. These fish-derived nutrients may help corals grow faster but could also help seaweeds grow faster if corals are killed by other processes such as climate change or disease. However, nutrients from human-derived sources such as runoff from agriculture or sewage discharge can be harmful to corals as these nutrients are often of different types than those in fish excretions. The investigator seeks to understand how the different effects of fish-derived vs. human-derived nutrients impact coral growth, seaweed growth, and, ultimately, the health of coral reef ecosystems. This research will also facilitate a number of training and outreach opportunities including: (1) training graduate and undergraduate students, (2) creating a partnership between FIU and MAST@FIU, a new science and technology magnet high school, to educate underrepresented minorities in marine biology, (3) taking marine science to the masses with widely distributed videos, and (4) creating a citizen science initiative that will get interested marine biology students involved with helping to monitor some of the field experiments. Further, this work will generate much needed information on the science of coral reef restoration. Restoration of reefs is a growing field but many restoration efforts have little solid grounding in understanding the ecological processes that keep reefs healthy. Thus, this work will be able to make significant contribution to educating managers and restoration practitioners as to the processes that can help facilitate successful restoration efforts.This research will address fundamental and untested questions of how nutrient excretion by fishes impacts coral reef communities. Prior data suggest that the ecology of reefs is critically linked to the role of fishes as providers of limiting nutrients since fishes are one of, if not the most important, sources of N on reefs. This research is not only unique in its scope but also timely due to the global threats to reefs. As overfishing removes important fishes (and their role as nutrient providers) and anthropogenic nutrient loading increases the abundance of potentially harmful nutrients, the nutrient regimes on reefs may be changing for the worse. The goal of this project is to quantify how nutrients from fish excretion impact coral reef community structure and how this effect varies across environmental context. Specifically, the investigator outlines research to focus on three general sets of objectives that will be approached on reefs in the Florida Keys, USA: (1) Assess how fish-derived nutrients influence benthic community structure and coral growth and health both across and within reefs and how this influence varies with abiotic context, (2) Test how the physiology and growth of individual corals and algae respond to the different nutrient sources in fish excretion vs. anthropogenic nutrient loading, and (3) Examine how fish-derived nutrients impact coral restoration and how to design restoration programs to take advantage of important of fish-derived nutrients for coral growth. These questions will be addressed with: (1) a field monitoring program (Objective 1), (2) mechanistic nutrient enrichment experiments (Objective 2), and (3) coral restoration experiments (Objective 3).

目前，由于气候变化，珊瑚疾病，重要鱼类的过度开发以及富集养分过多的各种人类引起的威胁，珊瑚礁目前受到了损害。这些威胁可能导致珊瑚和鱼类的下降以及海藻的升高，将珊瑚礁变成海藻礁。了解人类介导的变化如何影响珊瑚礁的生态的一个重要方面是了解鱼类如何影响礁石上的重要营养周期。研究人员的事先研究表明，鱼类可能是通过每日排泄在礁石上氮和磷的最重要来源之一。这些源自鱼类的营养物质可能有助于珊瑚生长更快，但如果珊瑚被其他过程（例如气候变化或疾病）杀死，也可以帮助海藻生长更快。但是，来自人类来源的营养物质，例如农业或污水排放的径流可能对珊瑚有害，因为这些营养素通常与鱼类排泄物不同。研究者试图了解鱼类衍生的人与人类衍生的养分的不同影响如何影响珊瑚礁生态系统的健康，并影响珊瑚礁生长。这项研究还将促进许多培训和宣传机会，包括：（1）培训毕业生和本科生，（2）在FIU和MAST@FIU之间建立合作伙伴关系，这是一所新的科学和技术磁铁高中，教育在海洋生物学中占主导地位的少数群体，（3）在海洋生物学中的少数群体，（3）涉及广泛的群体，以扩展大量的学生（4）公民的启动（4）公民（4）公民（4）公民（4）（4）通过帮助监视一些现场实验。此外，这项工作将产生有关珊瑚礁修复科学的急需信息。珊瑚礁的恢复是一个越来越多的领域，但是许多恢复工作在理解保持礁石健康的生态过程方面几乎没有扎实的基础。因此，这项工作将能够为经理和恢复从业者做出重大贡献，以帮助有助于促进成功恢复工作的过程。这项研究将解决有关鱼类营养排泄如何影响珊瑚礁社区的基本和未经测试的问题。先前的数据表明，珊瑚礁的生态与鱼类作为限制营养物质的提供者的作用密切相关，因为鱼类是礁石上n的n源之一，即使不是最重要的n源。这项研究不仅在其范围上是独一无二的，而且由于全球对礁石的威胁而及时。由于过度捕捞可以去除重要的鱼类（及其作为营养提供者的作用）和人为营养的载荷增加了潜在的有害养分的丰富性，因此，珊瑚礁的养分制度可能会导致更糟。该项目的目的是量化鱼类排泄产生的养分如何影响珊瑚礁社区的结构以及这种影响如何在环境环境中变化。 Specifically, the investigator outlines research to focus on three general sets of objectives that will be approached on reefs in the Florida Keys, USA: (1) Assess how fish-derived nutrients influence benthic community structure and coral growth and health both across and within reefs and how this influence varies with abiotic context, (2) Test how the physiology and growth of individual corals and algae respond to the different nutrient sources in fish excretion vs.人为的营养负荷，以及（3）研究鱼类衍生的养分如何影响珊瑚的恢复以及如何设计恢复计划，以利用鱼类衍生的养分来促进珊瑚生长。这些问题将通过：（1）野外监测程序（目标1），（2）机械营养富集实验（目标2）和（3）珊瑚恢复实验（目标3）。