RUI: Collaborative Research: Understanding bioerosion from individuals to ecosystems: the impacts of biotic and abiotic stressors on sponge erosion of oyster reefs.

RUI：合作研究：了解从个体到生态系统的生物侵蚀：生物和非生物应激源对牡蛎礁海绵侵蚀的影响。

• 批准号: 2045346
• 负责人: Amber Stubler
• 金额: $ 31.26万
• 依托单位: Occidental College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-11-01 至 2024-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2045346&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Collaborative; Research; Understanding; bioerosion

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Oyster reefs, historically one of the most important economic and ecological habitats in the U.S., have suffered major losses due to declining water quality, overharvesting, and diseases. In estuaries across the country, many large-scale conservation, restoration, and research efforts have been implemented to help reestablish oyster reefs. To better understand and protect these ecosystems, this project focuses on understanding the breakdown (erosion) processes that are occurring in areas where oysters are found. Erosion facilitated by living organisms (called bioerosion), such as boring sponges, is problematic for oyster aquaculture and restoration efforts, yet little is known about the processes that influence the rates of sponge bioerosion on oyster reefs. To address this knowledge gap, this research is evaluating two factors thought to affect sponge bioerosion rates: the presence of nudibranchs that prey on boring sponges and ocean acidification. The project uses manipulative experiments and collects sequence data to 1) determine the ways that Atlantic and Pacific boring sponge species respond to predators under different ocean acidification conditions, and 2) compare the short- and long-term effects of predator presence and acidification on sponge bioerosion rates of oyster reefs. The experimental data collected will be used to model bioerosion on simulated oyster reefs to better understand how these two factors influence overall oyster reef carbonate changes. This research informs better management practices for controlling sponge bioerosion for oyster growers, aquaculturists, and restoration programs and improve our understanding of how biotic and abiotic stressors act individually and together to alter sponge bioerosion behavior. This project strategically links undergraduate students at a small liberal arts college (Occidental College) with collaborators at an R1 institution (Louisiana State University), an R2 Hispanic-Serving Institution (University of California Merced), and will incorporate over 40 undergraduate students in various aspects of the project, including intensive field and lab experiences, bioinformatics workshops, and classroom-based projects. Students will also help create open-access materials (both written and video-based) that detail the research methods, protocols, and analyses and all data and code will be made publicly available to promote transparency and reproducibility in science. Results and open-access materials will be broadly disseminated via scientific conferences, peer-reviewed journals, industry meetings with shellfish growers and aquaculturists, and social media outlets.Organism-mediated substrate removal, or bioerosion, has a negative effect on oyster reef growth and resilience; bioeroding sponges are considered one of the most destructive bioeroding taxa in these ecosystems. While many abiotic stressors have been found to influence sponge bioerosion (e.g. acidification, temperature, etc.), the ability of bioeroding sponges to react to biotic stressors, such as predation, remains unexplored. This project uses experimental investigations, transcriptome sequencing, and mathematical modelling of a nudibranch-sponge predator-prey model to evaluate the responses of bioeroding sponges to biotic and abiotic stressors. The research determines how sponges modify their relative investment in chemical and mechanical bioerosion in response to predation pressure and seawater acidification at the phenotypic and transcriptomic levels. The project: (i) explores whether predator presence directly elicits bioerosion as an inducible defense in boring sponges, (ii) quantitatively assesses the phenotypic and transcriptomic response of boring sponges to predation and acidification over different temporal scales, and (iii) determines whether sponge response to these abiotic and biotic factors are similar across phylogenetic and geographic scales. The research advances the scientific understanding of sponge bioerosion in non-tropical, non-coral carbonate ecosystems and examines the ubiquity of these processes across heterogeneous geographic regions. This project has the capacity to transform our understanding of the biotic and abiotic interactions between boring sponges and the ecosystems where they reside.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.

该奖项是根据2021年《美国救援计划法》的全部或部分资助的（公共法117-2）。伊斯特礁是美国最重要的经济和生态栖息地之一，由于水质，过度拨款和疾病而造成了重大损失。在全国各地的河口中，已经实施了许多大规模的保护，修复和研究工作，以帮助重建牡蛎礁。为了更好地理解和保护这些生态系统，该项目着重于理解发现牡蛎的区域中发生的分解（侵蚀）过程。活生物体促进的侵蚀（称为生物膜），例如无聊的海绵，对于牡蛎水产养殖和恢复工作是有问题的，但对影响牡蛎礁上海绵生物疾病速率的过程知之甚少。为了解决这一知识差距，这项研究正在评估两个因素被认为会影响海绵生物膜的因素：存在于无聊的海绵和海洋酸化的裸毛。该项目使用操纵实验并将序列数据收集到1）确定在不同的海洋酸化条件下对捕食者反应捕食者的方式，以及2）比较捕食者存在和酸化对牡蛎矿的生物膜的短期和长期影响。收集的实验数据将用于模拟模拟牡蛎礁上的生物膜，以更好地了解这两个因素如何影响牡蛎礁碳酸盐的变化。这项研究为更好的管理实践提供了为牡蛎种植者，水产养殖者和恢复计划控制海绵生物膜的更好管理实践，并提高了我们对生物和非生物压力源如何单独和共同行动以改变海绵生物膜行为的理解。该项目从一所小型文科学院（西方学院）与R1机构（路易斯安那州立大学），R2西班牙裔服务机构（加利福尼亚大学默塞德大学）的合作者（西方学院）的本科生联系起来，并将在项目的各个项目中纳入40多个本科生，包括集体现场和实验室的经验，并将其纳入本科生的经验，并将融合40多个本科生。学生还将帮助创建开放式材料（基于书面和视频），详细介绍研究方法，协议和分析，并将所有数据和代码公开使用，以促进科学中的透明度和可重复性。结果和开放式材料将通过科学会议，经过同行评审的期刊，与贝类种植者和水产养殖者的行业会议以及社交媒体渠道进行广泛传播。有机物介导的底物去除或生物膜，对牡蛎reef reef生长和韧性具有负面影响；生物编码海绵被认为是这些生态系统中最具破坏性的生物编码分类单元之一。虽然已经发现许多非生物应激源会影响海绵生物膜（例如酸化，温度等），但生物膜沉着的海绵与生物胁迫反应（例如捕食）的能力仍然没有探索。该项目使用实验研究，转录组测序以及裸子海绵捕食者捕食者模型的数学模型，以评估生物编码海绵对生物和非生物胁迫源的反应。该研究确定了海绵如何在表型和转录组水平上对捕食压力和海水酸化的反应，以改变其对化学和机械生物膜的相对投资。该项目：（i）探讨捕食者的存在是否直接引起了无聊海绵中的诱导性防御，（ii）定量评估无聊海绵对不同时间尺度上的捕食和酸化的表型和转录反应，（iii）确定对这些比例和生物跨性别因素的质量相似和地理。该研究对非热带，非碳酸盐生态系统的海绵生物膜的科学理解进行了进步，并研究了这些过程跨异构地理区域的无处不在。该项目有能力改变我们对无聊海绵与它们所在的生态系统之间生物和非生物相互作用的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的智力优点和更广泛影响的评估标准来通过评估来获得支持的。