RAPID- The implications of El Nino-related bleaching on coral recruitment in Moorea

RAPID- 厄尔尼诺现象相关的白化对莫雷阿岛珊瑚补充的影响

• 批准号: 1619893
• 负责人: Peter Edmunds
• 金额: $ 8.94万
• 依托单位: The University Corporation, Northridge
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-01-15 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1619893&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; implications; El; Nino; related

This research explores the effects of the 2015-16 El-Niño on coral reefs in French Polynesia where the US National Science Foundation supports a Long-Term Ecological Research site. El Niño brings a diversity of unusual conditions to the Pacific Ocean, but for coral reefs the most important effect is caused by seawater warming during the summer. Bleaching, the process causing corals to lose color and die, is a dramatic example of the negative effects of El Niño on reef corals, but high temperature also has insidious effects through impaired reproduction and poor recruitment of baby corals. As a result, El Niño conditions are likely to be associated with a degraded ability of coral reefs to regrow following disturbances, potentially preventing a full recovery, or favoring substantial changes in the community that develops. This research builds on the unrivalled history of LTER investigations in Moorea to ask how coral recruitment is affected by El Niño, as measured by the number of baby corals arriving to the reef, the number of baby corals that grow, and the kinds of communities that develop as a result of these events. The study involves fieldwork conducted in Moorea by faculty and graduate students, during which settlement tiles will be installed and monitored for baby corals, baby corals will be evaluated for overall "health", and natural and artificial reef surfaces will be quantified for community development. The results of this study will help to understand how marine ecosystems are responding to the spectrum of natural and human-related disturbances to which they exposed, including global climate change, and will improve the capacity to understand in what form coral reefs in US waters and throughout the world will survive the coming century. The project creates unique opportunities for graduate students to work in an international context, where they will conduct research promoting STEM careers, an appreciation of diverse tropical ecosystems, and the role of climate change in modifying ecosystem dynamics. The broader implications of this project will be strengthened by integrating the results into life science curricula at local high schools, in part by utilizing settlement tiles from Moorea in classroom exercises staffed by California State University Northridge graduate students.This project addresses the effects of the 2015-16 El-Niño on coral recruitment in Moorea, French Polynesia, where coral reefs have been studied since 2005 thought the Moorea Coral Reef LTER. Time-series research supported by this program provides a unique historical context against which the ecological effects of the upcoming El-Niño can be gauged. As coral bleaching negatively affects coral reproduction, and previous El Niño events have been associated with globally-depressed coral recruitment, it is reasonably to hypothesize that coral recruitment in Moorea will change in magnitude (i.e., declining density) and type (i.e., taxonomic composition) over the next year. These possibilities have important implications, because coral recruitment mediates community resilience to disturbances, and modulates the trajectories of future reef development. In this 12-month project, a program of mensurative and manipulative experiments will be conducted to addressed four hypotheses: (1) coral recruitment will be depressed following El Niño-related seawater warming, (2) warming will affect post-settlement success of corals, (3) for Pocillopora, the effects on coral recruitment will be modulated through density-dependent processes, and (4) the resulting recruitment perturbations will modify trajectories of coral community development. The results of this research will have general application in revealing the demographic processes determining the response of coral reef communities to recurrent pulse disturbances such as El Niño events.

这项研究探讨了 2015 年 16 月厄尔尼诺现象对法属波利尼西亚珊瑚礁的影响，美国国家科学基金会支持该地区的长期生态研究站点，厄尔尼诺现象给太平洋带来了多种不寻常的条件，但对珊瑚来说。对珊瑚礁来说，最重要的影响是夏季海水变暖造成的，这一过程会导致珊瑚褪色和死亡，这是厄尔尼诺现象对珊瑚礁造成负面影响的一个典型例子，但高温也会对珊瑚礁造成影响。因此，厄尔尼诺现象可能与珊瑚礁在受到干扰后再生能力下降有关，从而可能阻碍珊瑚礁的全面恢复，或有利于珊瑚群落发生重大变化。这项研究建立在莫雷阿岛 LTER 调查的无与伦比的历史基础上，通过到达珊瑚礁的幼珊瑚数量、生长的幼珊瑚数量以及厄尔尼诺现象来衡量珊瑚的补充。该研究涉及教师和研究生在莫雷阿岛进行的实地考察，在此期间将安装定居点瓷砖并监测幼珊瑚，并对幼珊瑚进行整体“健康”评估。天然和人工珊瑚礁表面将被量化，以促进群落发展。这项研究的结果将有助于了解海洋生态系统如何应对其所遭受的自然和人类相关干扰（包括全球气候变化），并将得到改善。了解珊瑚礁形态的能力该项目为研究生在国际背景下工作创造了独特的机会，他们将进行研究，促进 STEM 职业、了解多样化的热带生态系统以及气候变化的作用。通过将研究结果纳入当地高中的生命科学课程，部分通过在加州州立大学北岭分校研究生的课堂练习中使用莫雷阿岛的聚落瓷砖，该项目的更广泛影响将得到加强。的影响2015-16 厄尔尼诺现象影响了法属波利尼西亚莫雷阿岛的珊瑚补充，自 2005 年以来一直在研究珊瑚礁，认为该计划支持的莫雷阿岛珊瑚礁 LTER 时间序列研究提供了独特的历史背景，以此来研究珊瑚礁的生态影响。由于珊瑚白化会对珊瑚繁殖产生负面影响，而且之前的厄尔尼诺事件与全球范围内的珊瑚补充减少有关，因此可以合理地认为莫雷阿岛的珊瑚补充会减少。明年，珊瑚礁的数量（即密度下降）和类型（即分类组成）将发生变化，这些可能性具有重要意义，因为珊瑚补充会调节群落对干扰的恢复力，并调节未来珊瑚礁的发展轨迹。一个月的项目中，将进行一项测量和操作实验计划，以解决四个假设：（1）厄尔尼诺相关的海水变暖后珊瑚的补充将受到抑制，（2）变暖将影响珊瑚定居后的成功，(3) 对于 Pocillopora，对珊瑚补充的影响将通过密度依赖过程进行调节，(4) 由此产生的补充扰动将改变珊瑚群落的发展轨迹。一般应用于揭示人口统计过程，确定珊瑚礁群落对厄尔尼诺事件等周期性脉冲干扰的反应。