Positive Effects of Coral Biodiversity on Coral Performance: Patterns, Processes, and Dynamics

珊瑚生物多样性对珊瑚表现的积极影响：模式、过程和动态

基本信息

批准号：
1947522
负责人：
Mark Hay
金额：
$ 131.97万
依托单位：
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-03-01 至 2024-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1947522&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Positive Effects Coral Biodiversity Performance

项目摘要

Coral reefs are extremely diverse, supply critical ecosystem services, and are collapsing at an alarming rate, with 80% coral loss in the Caribbean and 50% in the Pacific in recent decades. Previous studies emphasized negative interactions (competition, predation) as structuring reef systems, but positive interactions in such species-rich systems could be of equal importance in maintaining ecosystem function. If foundation species like corals depend on positive interactions, then their fitness may decline with the loss of surrounding species, creating a biodiversity meltdown where loss of one coral causes losses of others. This project conducts manipulative field experiments to understand the role of coral biodiversity in facilitating coral growth, survival, resilience, and retention of these foundation species and the critical ecosystem services they provide in shallow tropical seas. This project is committed to: 1) Educating and exciting influential business and civic leaders about conservation and restoration of coastal marine systems before these systems lose ecological function and value. This will involve influential Rotary clubs within North Georgia/Atlanta (the major economic engine of the southeastern US) as an initial focus. 2) Using the Research News and Institute Communications Office at Georgia Tech and well-developed contacts with science writers to produce popular press pieces on important ocean ecology discoveries emerging from these studies. (3) Organizing a public workshop of internationally prominent scientists focused on Maintaining Marine Biodiversity as a Strategy to Sustain Ecosystem Services and Coastal Cultures and Economies. A previous effort like this, organized by the investigators, attracted about 200 attendees and was webcast to numerous high schools in Georgia and to foreign investigators in less developed countries that could not attend. Speakers also conducted in-person video interviews with local high school classes. Due to that success, this model will be repeated. 4) Working with an association of educators and cultural leaders in French Polynesia to produce electronic format presentations on our work and on reef conservation that are appropriate for use by both teachers and leaders within Polynesian culture. Ecologists have excelled at demonstrating the importance of direct (often negative) interactions among species pairs. However, when these interactions occur in a complex context among thousands of other species in the field, the sum of the many, poorly-known, indirect interactions can counterbalance, or even reverse, the better-known direct interactions, generating diffuse mutualisms instead of agonistic outcomes. In a proof-of-concept initial experiment, coral growth and survivorship were greater in coral polycultures than monocultures, especially during early stages of community development. Processes generating this outcome are unclear but understanding these is of critical importance as diversity and function of reefs decline and as humans need to predict and adapt to changing environments. This interdisciplinary investigation merges expertise in experimental field ecology, chemical ecology, and the ecology of microbiomes to investigate the functional role of biodiversity in coral reef ecosystems. Experiments use a novel coral transplantation method and field manipulations to assess: 1) whether greater coral species diversity enhances coral community performance, as well as growth and survivorship of individual corals, 2) whether greater genotypic diversity enhances coral performance within a species, 3) whether greater diversity of seaweed competitors further suppresses corals and enhances seaweed performance, and 4) the processes driving the patterns documented above, including the roles of disease, intraspecific versus interspecific competition, predators, mutualists, and differential access to, or use of, resources. The research investigates the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function across dimensions of coral taxonomic diversity, from species to genotypes, and creates a series of experiments elucidating general principles underlying ecosystem dynamics. Filling these knowledge gaps advances our fundamental understanding of how biodiversity influences ecosystem function at multiple scales and provides insight into the processes promoting coral coexistence in these species-rich ecosystems. Findings will have practical implications for coral management and restoration and may improve predictions regarding coral reef resilience and recovery in the face of changing climate.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.

珊瑚礁极其多样化，提供关键的生态系统服务，但正在以惊人的速度崩溃，近几十年来，加勒比海地区的珊瑚损失了 80%，太平洋地区的珊瑚损失了 50%。以前的研究强调消极相互作用（竞争、捕食）作为珊瑚礁系统的结构，但这种物种丰富的系统中的积极相互作用对于维持生态系统功能可能同样重要。如果像珊瑚这样的基础物种依赖于积极的相互作用，那么它们的适应性可能会随着周围物种的消失而下降，从而造成生物多样性崩溃，一种珊瑚的消失会导致其他珊瑚的消失。该项目进行操作性现场实验，以了解珊瑚生物多样性在促进珊瑚生长、生存、恢复力和这些基础物种的保留以及它们在热带浅海提供的关键生态系统服务方面的作用。该项目致力于： 1) 在沿海海洋系统失去生态功能和价值之前，对有影响力的商业和公民领导人进行有关保护和恢复沿海海洋系统的教育和激励。这将涉及北乔治亚州/亚特兰大（美国东南部主要经济引擎）内有影响力的扶轮社作为最初的重点。 2）利用佐治亚理工学院的研究新闻和研究所通讯办公室以及与科学作家的良好联系，就这些研究中出现的重要海洋生态发现制作流行的新闻报道。 (3) 组织一次由国际知名科学家参加的公共研讨会，重点关注维护海洋生物多样性作为维持生态系统服务和沿海文化和经济的战略。之前由调查人员组织的类似活动吸引了大约 200 名参与者，并通过网络向格鲁吉亚的众多高中以及无法参加的欠发达国家的外国调查人员进行了直播。演讲者还对当地高中班级进行了现场视频采访。由于这一成功，这种模式将被重复。 4) 与法属波利尼西亚的教育工作者和文化领袖协会合作，制作适合波利尼西亚文化中的教师和领导者使用的关于我们的工作和珊瑚礁保护的电子格式演示文稿。生态学家擅长证明物种对之间直接（通常是负面）相互作用的重要性。然而，当这些相互作用发生在该领域数千个其他物种的复杂环境中时，许多鲜为人知的间接相互作用的总和可以抵消甚至逆转更为人所知的直接相互作用，产生弥散的互利共生，而不是竞争性结果。在概念验证的初步实验中，珊瑚混养的珊瑚生长和存活率高于单一养殖，特别是在群落发展的早期阶段。产生这一结果的过程尚不清楚，但随着珊瑚礁多样性和功能的下降以及人类需要预测和适应不断变化的环境，了解这些过程至关重要。这项跨学科研究融合了实验田生态学、化学生态学和微生物生态学的专业知识，以研究生物多样性在珊瑚礁生态系统中的功能作用。实验使用新颖的珊瑚移植方法和现场操作来评估：1）更大的珊瑚物种多样性是否会增强珊瑚群落的性能以及单个珊瑚的生长和存活，2）更大的基因型多样性是否会增强物种内的珊瑚性能，3）海藻竞争者的多样性是否会进一步抑制珊瑚并提高海藻的性能，以及 4) 驱动上述模式的过程，包括疾病的作用、种内竞争与种间竞争、捕食者、互利共生和差异访问或使用资源。该研究调查了从物种到基因型的珊瑚分类多样性各个维度的生物多样性和生态系统功能之间的关系，并创建了一系列实验来阐明生态系统动态的一般原理。填补这些知识空白可以增进我们对生物多样性如何在多个层面影响生态系统功能的基本理解，并深入了解促进珊瑚在这些物种丰富的生态系统中共存的过程。研究结果将对珊瑚管理和恢复产生实际影响，并可能改善对珊瑚礁面对气候变化的恢复力和恢复的预测。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过利用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。