Collaborative Research: Pattern and process in the abundance and recruitment of Caribbean octocorals

合作研究：加勒比八珊瑚的丰富和补充的模式和过程

基本信息

批准号：
1756678
负责人：
Peter Edmunds
金额：
$ 43.25万
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：
2018
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2018-04-01 至 2023-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1756678&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Pattern process abundance

项目摘要

Coral reefs are exposed to a diversity of natural and anthropogenic disturbances, and the consequences for ecosystem degradation have been widely publicized. However, the reported changes have been biased towards fishes and stony corals, and for Caribbean reefs, the most notable example of this bias are octocorals ("soft corals"). Although they are abundant and dominate many Caribbean reefs, they are rarely included in studies due to the difficulty of both identifying them and in quantifying their abundances. In some places there is compelling evidence that soft corals have increased in abundance, even while stony corals have become less common. This suggests that soft corals are more resilient than stony corals to the wide diversity of disturbances that have been impacting coral corals. The best coral reefs on which to study these changes are those that have been studied for decades and can provide a decadal context to more recent events, and in this regard the reefs of St. John, US Virgin Islands are unique. Stony corals on the reefs have been studied since 1987, and the soft corals from 2014. This provides unrivalled platform to evaluate patterns of octocoral abundance and recruitment; identify the patterns of change that are occurring on these reefs, and identify the processes responsible for the resilience of octocoral populations. The project will extend soft coral monitoring from 4 years to 8 years, and within this framework will examine the roles of baby corals, and their response to seafloor roughness, seawater flow, and seaweed, in determining the success of soft corals. The work will also assess whether the destructive effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria have modified the pattern of change. In concert with these efforts the project will be closely integrated with local high schools at which the investigators will host marine biology clubs and provide independent study opportunities for their students and teachers. Unique training opportunities will be provided to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as a postdoctoral researcher, all of whom will study and work in St. John, and the investigators will train coral reef researchers to identify the species of soft corals through a hands-on workshop to be conducted in the Florida Keys.Understanding how changing environmental conditions will affect the community structure of major biomes is the ecological objective defining the 21st century. The holistic effects of these conditions on coral reefs will be studied on shallow reefs within the Virgin Islands National Park in St. John, US Virgin Islands, which is the site of one of the longest-running, long-term studies of coral reef community dynamics in the region. With NSF-LTREB support, the investigators have been studying long-term changes in stony coral communities in this location since 1987, and in 2014 NSF-OCE support was used to build an octocoral "overlay" to this decadal perspective. The present project extends from this unique history, which has been punctuated by the effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, to place octocoral synecology in a decadal context, and the investigators exploit a rich suite of legacy data to better understand the present and immediate future of Caribbean coral reefs. This four-year project will advance on two concurrent fronts: first, to extend time-series analyses of octocoral communities from four to eight years to characterize the pattern and pace of change in community structure, and second, to conduct a program of hypothesis-driven experiments focused on octocoral settlement that will uncover the mechanisms allowing octocorals to more effectively colonize substrata than scleractinian corals on present day reefs. Specifically, the investigators will conduct mensurative and manipulative experiments addressing four hypotheses focusing on the roles of: (1) habitat complexity in distinguishing between octocoral and scleractinian recruitment niches, (2) the recruitment niche in mediating post-settlement success, (3) competition in algal turf and macroalgae in determining the success of octocoral and scleractian recruits, and (4) role of octocoral canopies in modulating the flux of particles and larvae to the seafloor beneath. The results of this study will be integrated to evaluate the factors driving higher ecological resilience of octocorals versus scleractinians on present-day Caribbean reefs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

珊瑚礁受到各种自然和人为干扰，生态系统退化的后果已被广泛宣传。然而，报告的变化偏向于鱼类和石珊瑚，对于加勒比珊瑚礁，这种偏见最显着的例子是八珊瑚（“软珊瑚”）。尽管它们数量丰富并且在许多加勒比珊瑚礁中占主导地位，但由于难以识别它们和量化它们的丰度，因此很少将它们纳入研究中。在一些地方，有令人信服的证据表明，软珊瑚的数量有所增加，尽管石珊瑚已变得不那么常见。这表明软珊瑚比石珊瑚更能抵抗影响珊瑚的各种干扰。研究这些变化的最佳珊瑚礁是那些已经研究了几十年的珊瑚礁，可以为最近发生的事件提供十年背景，在这方面，美属维尔京群岛圣约翰的珊瑚礁是独一无二的。自 1987 年以来一直在研究珊瑚礁上的石珊瑚，自 2014 年以来一直在研究软珊瑚。这为评估八珊瑚丰度和补充模式提供了无与伦比的平台；确定这些珊瑚礁上正在发生的变化模式，并确定负责八珊瑚种群恢复能力的过程。该项目将软珊瑚监测期从 4 年延长至 8 年，并在此框架内研究幼珊瑚的作用及其对海底粗糙度、海水流量和海藻的反应，以确定软珊瑚的成功。这项工作还将评估飓风艾尔玛和玛丽亚的破坏性影响是否改变了变化的模式。为了配合这些努力，该项目将与当地高中紧密结合，研究人员将在当地高中举办海洋生物学俱乐部，并为学生和教师提供独立学习的机会。将为本科生和研究生以及博士后研究员提供独特的培训机会，他们都将在圣约翰学习和工作，研究人员将培训珊瑚礁研究人员通过手工操作来识别软珊瑚的物种。研讨会将在佛罗里达群岛举行。了解不断变化的环境条件将如何影响主要生物群落的群落结构是定义 21 世纪的生态目标。这些条件对珊瑚礁的整体影响将在美属维尔京群岛圣约翰的维尔京群岛国家公园内的浅礁上进行研究，该公园是对珊瑚礁群落进行时间最长的长期研究的地点之一该地区的动态。在 NSF-LTREB 的支持下，研究人员自 1987 年以来一直在研究该地点石珊瑚群落的长期变化，并于 2014 年利用 NSF-OCE 的支持为这一十年视角建立了八珊瑚“叠加”。目前的项目从这段独特的历史（受到飓风艾尔玛和玛丽亚的影响）延伸，将八珊瑚协同学置于十年背景下，研究人员利用一套丰富的遗留数据来更好地了解八珊瑚的现在和不久的将来。加勒比珊瑚礁。这个为期四年的项目将在两个并行的方面取得进展：首先，将八珊瑚群落的时间序列分析从四年延长到八年，以表征群落结构变化的模式和速度，其次，进行一项假设计划以八珊瑚定居为重点的驱动实验将揭示八珊瑚比当今珊瑚礁上的石珊瑚更有效地在底层定居的机制。具体来说，研究人员将进行测量和操作实验，解决四个假设，重点关注以下作用：（1）栖息地复杂性在区分八珊瑚和石珊瑚招募利基中，（2）招募利基在调解定居后成功中，（3）竞争在藻类和大型藻类中确定八珊瑚和巩膜藻新成员的成功，以及（4）八珊瑚冠层在调节中的作用颗粒和幼虫流向海底。这项研究的结果将被整合起来，以评估推动当今加勒比海珊瑚礁上的八珊瑚与造石珊瑚更高的生态恢复力的因素。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。