Dispersal, connectivity and local adaptation along an extreme environmental gradient

沿着极端环境梯度的分散、连通性和局部适应

• 批准号: 1924498
• 负责人: Adam Reitzel
• 金额: $ 79.88万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-09-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1924498&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dispersal; connectivity; local; adaptation; along

Future increases in sea temperatures are expected to have far-reaching and detrimental consequences for marine organisms. Organisms must either move to more favorable environments, acclimate to maintain homeostasis, or adapt through genomic changes to the new thermal regime, otherwise local extinction will occur. For marine benthic organisms that are largely and completely sedentary, their capacity to migrate is dependent on larval dispersal, which is hypothesized to be limited under warming conditions. In this project, the research team studies populations of four marine invertebrate species (coral, sea urchin, oyster, ascidian) across the substantial thermal gradient along the northeastern Arabian Peninsula as a natural system to quantify the effects of elevated temperatures on dispersal, genetic connectivity and adaptation. The team will use an integrative approach that consists of experimental larval assays, biophysical modeling and high throughput sequencing technologies. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the potential impacts of climate change on economically and ecologically important organisms, while enriching the understanding of core ecological and evolutionary concepts. The success of this project results from a synergistic international collaboration with New York University at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. This research project provides mentoring and training for a postdoctoral scholar, a graduate student, and four undergraduate students from underrepresented minority groups who are interested in pursuing graduate education. Each of these scholars is provided access to cutting-edge science, international and collaborative research opportunities, and experience disseminating their science to different audiences. Furthermore, the broader impacts extend to the Charlotte community and wider public in this region of North Carolina through the implementation of two outreach exhibits at a local science museum.Understanding the interplay between dispersal, genetic connectivity and adaptation will be key to forecasting the impacts on future sea temperature increases on marine benthic invertebrates. This project uses the world's warmest reefs in the Persian/Arabian Gulf, that currently experience temperatures not anticipated on reefs elsewhere within the next century, as a model system to study the effects of elevated temperatures on these ecologically and evolutionary important processes. Populations of four invertebrate species from the Persian/Arabian Gulf are compared to populations in the neighboring Gulf of Oman that experiences a more benign thermal environment. The first aim characterizes the impact of elevated temperatures on the survival, pelagic duration, and settlement responses of larvae from different populations of the four focal species along the thermal gradient. These results are additionally compared with potential shifts in egg investment strategies by females from each location. The second aim uses these population-specific responses gleaned from the larval experiments to parameterize models of present day and future dispersal and compares them against existing patterns of genetic connectivity. The final aim analyzes the genomic basis for thermal adaptation in these populations through a combination of whole genome comparisons and single-generation selection experiments, with the goal to ascertain whether there is evidence for convergent/parallel evolution in the taxonomically distinct invertebrate species. This project is expected to advance our knowledge of adaptation to climate change by providing new insights into the impacts of temperature on a key life cycle stage and elucidate the genomic processes governing thermal adaptation in marine invertebrates.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.

预计未来的海温升高将对海洋生物产生深远的影响和有害后果。生物必须转移到更有利的环境中，适应维持稳态，或者通过基因组变化对新的热体制进行适应，否则将发生局部灭绝。对于很大程度上完全久坐的海洋底栖生物，它们的迁移能力取决于幼虫分散，这在变暖条件下被限制为限制。在该项目中，研究小组研究了四个海洋无脊椎动物物种（珊瑚，海胆，牡蛎，橡胶，海藻）的种群，沿着阿拉伯东北部半岛沿岸的大量热梯度，作为一种自然系统，以量化温度升高对分散，遗传连接和适应的影响。该团队将使用一种综合方法，该方法包括实验性幼虫测定，生物物理建模和高吞吐量测序技术。这项研究对气候变化对经济和生态上重要的生物的潜在影响进行了全面评估，同时丰富了对核心生态和进化概念的理解。该项目的成功源于与阿拉伯联合酋长国阿布扎比的纽约大学的协同国际合作。该研究项目为博士后学者，研究生和四名来自代表性不足的少数群体的本科生提供指导和培训，他们有兴趣从事研究生教育。这些学者中的每一个都可以访问尖端的科学，国际和协作研究机会，并经验将其科学传播给不同的受众。此外，通过在当地科学博物馆实施两个外展展览，在北卡罗来纳州这个地区的夏洛特社区和更广泛的公众都扩展了更广泛的影响。理解分散，遗传连通性和适应性之间的相互作用将是预测对未来对海洋温度对海洋骨气架的影响的关键。该项目利用波斯/阿拉伯海湾中世界上最温暖的礁石，目前经历了下一个世纪内其他地方尚未预期的温度，作为一种模型系统，用于研究温度升高对这些生态和进化重要过程的影响。将来自波斯/阿拉伯海湾的四种无脊椎动物物种的种群与阿曼相邻海湾中的人群进行了比较，而阿曼湾经历了更良性的热环境。第一个目的是升高温度对沿热梯度的四个焦点物种不同种群的幼虫的生存，上层持续时间和沉降反应的影响。这些结果还与女性从每个位置的卵投资策略的潜在变化进行了比较。第二个目的使用了从幼体实验收集的这些特定于人群的反应，以参数化当今和将来的分散模型，并将它们与现有的遗传连接模式进行比较。最终目的通过整个基因组比较和单一生成选择实验的结合来分析这些人群中热适应的基因组基础，目的是确定是否有证据表明在分类不同的无脊椎动物物种中有收敛/平行的进化。预计该项目将通过提供对温度对关键生命周期阶段的影响的新见解的适应性知识，并阐明了海洋无脊椎动物的热适应的基因组过程。这奖反映了NSF的立法任务，并认为通过基金会的智力优质和广泛的范围来评估支持，并值得通过评估来进行评估。

项目成果

Unraveling the predictive role of temperature in the gut microbiota of the sea urchin Echinometra sp. EZ across spatial and temporal gradients

• DOI: 10.1111/mec.15990
• 发表时间: 2021-05
• 期刊: Molecular Ecology
• 影响因子: 4.9
• 作者: R. N. Ketchum;Edward G. Smith;G. Vaughan;D. McParland;Noura Al-Mansoori;J. Burt;A. Reitzel