Collaborative Research: Tipping points in coral reefs and their associated microbiomes: interactive effects of herbivory, nutrient enrichment, and temperature

合作研究：珊瑚礁及其相关微生物组的临界点：食草、营养富集和温度的相互作用

• 批准号: 2023701
• 负责人: Deron Burkepile
• 金额: $ 75.54万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Barbara
• 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: 2020-08-15 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2023701&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Tipping; points; coral

Coral reefs are some of the most diverse, yet most imperiled, ecosystems on the planet. Global change has driven the decline of corals worldwide with many reefs now lacking corals and being overrun by macroalgae. This research examines the impacts of several factors of thermal stress, overfishing of important herbivorous fishes, and nutrient pollution on the health of corals and their ability to recover after large coral-killing disturbances. Importantly, the investigators address the impacts of global change on the coral microbiome, the microbes that associate with corals and impact coral health. The overarching hypothesis is that factors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution impact coral health via impacts to their microbes. This 6-year experiment on the coral reefs of Mo’orea, French Polynesia to examines what levels of herbivory, mostly by parrotfishes and surgeonfishes, are needed to provide resistance and resilience of corals and their microbiomes when reefs are exposed to elevated nutrients and ocean temperatures. Notably, the team tests how local stressors (overfishing, nutrient pollution) potentially interact with global stressors (climate change and rising ocean temperatures) to impact coral reef health. This research may yield insight into how to manage local factors (reducing fishing, mitigating nutrient pollution) to help corals survive the global stress of climate change. The field experiment provides a realistic platform to test questions about how local management of fisheries can alter reef health and provides data about the recoverability of reefs should new water quality management be put into place. This interdisciplinary work trains a new generation of both marine ecologists and microbiologists, including one postdoctoral researcher, two graduate students, as well as numerous undergraduates. The main international outreach effort is to map the microbiome of the island of Mo’orea. Mo’orea is approximately 130 square-kilometers in area and has five major watersheds that transport sediment and nutrients to the nearshore coral reef ecosystems. Thus poor stewardship of these watersheds likely contributes to the local phase shifts currently occurring in several areas of the lagoon. Therefore the team has engaged the local community to help collect microbiome samples from 50 terrestrial, 50 stream, 25 coastal sites, and 25 offshore sites around the island. The sampling effort is generating an island-wide map of the microbial communities associated with the soils, streams, and coastal waters that can be linked to adjacent coral reef health - The Moorea Microbiome! As part of this outreach effort, the team also collaborates with filmmakers to make a trilingual (English, French, and Tahitian) film about the project to serve as local engagement and teaching tool to help educate school groups and different stakeholders about both the seen and unseen connections between land and sea on their island. On the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia, coral communities have exhibited strikingly different trajectories, with some reefs recovering from disturbances and others undergoing protracted coral decline, accompanied by an increase in macroalgae. This diversity in coral community dynamics makes Mo’orea an excellent model system for testing why some reefs are resilient and return to abundant coral while others are not and undergo persistent phase shifts to macroalgal dominance. This 6-year experiment will measure the dynamics of benthic communities, coral demography, and the coral microbiome across seasonal change in ocean temperature, allowing the team to (1) link changes in coral microbiomes (e.g., a rise in pathogenic bacteria) to the trajectories of coral decline or recovery and (2) link nutrients, herbivory, and temperature to phase shifts in both benthic communities and coral microbiomes. Importantly, the team is testing the resistance of phase shifts of benthic communities and coral microbiomes by measuring their changes after removing the nutrient enrichment treatment at the end of year 3 and tracking recovery of the system for 3 more years. Thus, this project begins to answer whether reef and microbial community phase shifts can be easily reversed once they occur. Many studies have focused on the factors that disassemble coral reef communities, but this is the first to examine how reef communities can be reassembled from the microbiome upwards.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.

珊瑚礁是地球上最多样化、但也最危险的生态系统之一。全球变化导致了全球珊瑚数量的减少，许多珊瑚礁现在缺乏珊瑚，并且被大型藻类侵占。这项研究探讨了热应力的几个因素的影响。重要的草食性鱼类的过度捕捞以及营养物污染对珊瑚健康及其在大规模珊瑚死亡干扰后恢复的能力的影响。重要的是，研究人员解决了全球变化对珊瑚的影响。微生物组，即与珊瑚相关并影响珊瑚健康的微生物。这项针对法属波利尼西亚莫雷阿岛珊瑚礁进行的为期 6 年的实验表明，过度捕捞和营养物污染等因素会影响珊瑚的健康。研究当珊瑚礁暴露于升高的营养物质和海洋温度时，需要什么水平的食草动物（主要是鹦嘴鱼和刺尾鱼）来提供珊瑚及其微生物组的抵抗力和恢复力。值得注意的是，该团队测试了当地压力源（过度捕捞、营养物污染）如何与全球压力源（气候变化和海洋温度上升）相互作用，从而影响珊瑚礁健康。这项研究可能会深入了解如何管理当地因素（减少捕捞、减轻营养物）。该实地实验提供了一个现实的平台来测试当地渔业管理如何改变珊瑚礁健康的问题，并提供有关珊瑚礁可恢复性的数据（如果实施新的水质管理）。 。这项跨学科工作培养了新一代海洋生态学家和微生物学家，其中包括一名博士后研究员、两名研究生以及众多本科生。主要的国际推广工作是绘制莫雷阿岛的微生物组图。面积约 130 平方公里，有五个主要流域，将沉积物和营养物质输送到近岸珊瑚礁生态系统，因此，对这些流域的管理不善可能会导致一些地区目前发生的局部相变。因此，该团队与当地社区合作，帮助从该岛周围的 50 个陆地、50 个溪流、25 个沿海地点和 25 个近海地点收集微生物样本，并绘制了全岛微生物群落地图。与邻近珊瑚礁健康相关的土壤、溪流和沿海水域 - 莫雷阿岛微生物群系 作为这项外展工作的一部分，该团队还与电影制片人合作制作了三语版本（英语、法语和塔希提语）关于该项目的电影，作为当地参与和教学工具，帮助教育学校团体和不同的利益相关者了解莫奥雷岛上陆地和海洋之间可见和不可见的联系。在法属波利尼西亚，珊瑚群落表现出截然不同的轨迹，一些珊瑚礁从干扰中恢复，而另一些珊瑚礁则经历了长期的珊瑚衰退，同时伴随着大型藻类的增加，这种珊瑚群落动态的多样性使莫雷亚成为一个极好的模型系统。测试为什么一些珊瑚礁具有复原力并恢复丰富的珊瑚，而另一些珊瑚礁则不然，并经历持续的相变以成为大型藻类优势。这项为期六年的实验将测量海底群落、珊瑚人口统计和珊瑚微生物组在海洋温度季节性变化中的动态。 ，使团队能够（1）将珊瑚微生物组的变化（例如病原菌的增加）与珊瑚衰退或恢复的轨迹联系起来，以及（2）将营养物质、食草动物和温度与珊瑚的相变联系起来重要的是，该团队正在通过测量第 3 年末取消营养富集处理后的变化并跟踪系统的恢复情况来测试底栖群落和珊瑚微生物组的相变抵抗力。因此，该项目开始回答珊瑚礁和微生物群落相变一旦发生是否可以轻易逆转的问题。许多研究都集中在分解珊瑚礁群落的因素上，但这是第一个研究珊瑚礁群落如何被逆转的问题。从微生物组向上重新组装。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审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Chronic low-level nutrient enrichment benefits coral thermal performance in a fore reef habitat

长期低水平的营养富集有利于前礁栖息地的珊瑚热性能

• DOI: 10.1007/s00338-021-02138-2
• 发表时间: 2021-01
• 期刊: Coral Reefs
• 影响因子: 3.5
• 作者: Becker, Danielle M.;Putnam, Hollie M.;Burkepile, Deron E.;Adam, Thomas C.;Vega Thurber, Rebecca;Silbiger, Nyssa J.
• 通讯作者: Silbiger, Nyssa J.

Priority effects in coral–macroalgae interactions can drive alternate community paths in the absence of top‐down control

在缺乏自上而下控制的情况下，珊瑚与大型藻类相互作用的优先效应可以驱动替代的群落路径

• DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3831
• 发表时间: 2022-12
• 期刊: Ecology
• 影响因子: 4.8
• 作者: Adam, Thomas C.;Holbrook, Sally J.;Burkepile, Deron E.;Speare, Kelly E.;Brooks, Andrew J.;Ladd, Mark C.;Shantz, Andrew A.;Vega Thurber, Rebecca;Schmitt, Russell J.
• 通讯作者: Schmitt, Russell J.