Postdoctoral Fellowship: OCE-PRF: Do dead shells make good homes? Assessing the Development, Stability, and Evolution of Shell Gravel Habitats Across Space and Time

博士后奖学金：OCE-PRF：死去的贝壳能成为美好的家园吗？

• 批准号: 2307502
• 负责人: Broc Kokesh
• 金额: $ 29.63万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2307502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Postdoctoral; Fellowship; OCE; PRF; Do

The aim of this project is to assess the coevolution of benthic invertebrate communities and shell gravel habitats along a latitudinal gradient. Benthic communities directly modify their physical habitat as the skeletal debris (shells, bones, sclerites, etc.) of dead organisms over many generations accumulate in the sediment, creating patches of coarse substrates upon which epibenthic (surface-living) organisms can colonize. Despite being rare on modern continental shelfs, shell gravel habitats are hotspots for biodiversity and perhaps the best modern analogs of early fossil assemblages from before the onset of pervasive soft-sediment infaunal communities ( 65 million years ago). Further, while the evolutionary origins and ecological consequences of the global latitudinal gradient have been rigorously assessed to explain both modern and deep-time biodiversity, we still know little about latitudinal variation in the processes that determine the production, persistence, and preservation of fossil assemblages. The PI will collect and assess sediment samples from various substrate conditions (gravel vs mud, shallow vs deep) from two notable shell gravel environments along the Eastern Pacific coast of North America: The warm-temperate Channel Islands of Southern California and the cold-temperate San Juan Islands of Washington, forming a latitudinal gradient across which benthic communities, sediment substrates, and their local feedback effects will be quantified. The PI will further increase scientific engagement in the San Francisco Bay area by collaborating with biomonitoring agencies, creating lesson plans for local schools, volunteering with the University of California Museum of Paleontology, and mentoring undergraduates in research. Three overarching investigations will be conducted during this project: (1) the development, persistence, and temporal scale of dead-shell assemblages with respect to sedimentation rates, water temperature, and bioturbation intensity, (2) the fidelity between dead-shell assemblages and living benthic communities, and its relationship with dead-shell persistence, and (3) feedback effects that link these ecological and taphonomic dynamics. The first investigation will use postmortem ages determined via radiocarbon dating to quantify the duration of time averaging and determine shell loss parameters (disintegration, sequestration, and burial) within and between each field area. The second investigation will assess correlations in both univariate ecological metrics and multivariate composition among sampled communities and dead-shell assemblages. The third investigation will combine these physical and biological results to model their interactions and identify taphonomic feedbacks that act on these habitats. This research will bridge important gaps between physical and biological oceanography by identifying mechanisms by which benthic habitats shape – and are themselves shaped by – the succession of invertebrate communities. These insights will improve both (1) paleoecological interpretations from the fossil record and (2) conservation strategies for managing coastal biodiversity in a world of changing ocean conditions.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.

该项目的目的是评估沿纬度梯度沿底栖无脊椎动物群落和壳重力栖息地的共同进化。底栖群落直接改变了其物理栖息地，因为多代沉积物中积累的死生物的骨骼调试（壳，骨骼，硬化岩等）会产生大量的粗底物，在这些粗底物上，表皮（表面生活）的生物可以在这些底物上进行。尽管在现代连续电池上很少见，但壳重力栖息地是生物多样性的热点，也许是早期化石组合的最佳现代类似物，从普遍的软养糊糊的信息社区开始之前（6500万年前）。此外，尽管对全球纬度梯度的进化起源和生态后果进行了严格的评估，以解释现代和深层生物多样性，但我们仍然对确定化石组件的生产，持久性和保存的过程中的纬度变化知之甚少。 PI将从各种底物条件（砾石与泥土，浅层，浅层）中收集和评估北美东部太平洋沿岸的壳重力环境的样本：南加州的温暖的海峡群岛和华盛顿的寒冷的圣胡安群岛，形成了一个偏向的地方，这些渐变是跨国公司的，这些渐变的范围是塞布尔的，他们的境地逐渐养成了他们的境地，并取得了迫切的进食。旧金山湾区通过与生物监测机构合作，为当地学校制定课程计划，自愿与加州大学古生物学博物馆以及研究中的心理本科生。在此项目期间将进行三项总体调查：（1）关于沉积率，水温和生物扰动强度的死壳组件的发展，持久性和临时规模，（2）死壳组合和活着的骨髓群落之间的忠诚度及其与死壳持久性的关系以及（3）反馈效果和tapemical效果的效果和tap效。第一个投资将使用通过放射性碳日期确定的后年龄来量化平均时间的持续时间，并确定每个野外区域内和之间的壳损失参数（分解，隔离和埋葬）。第二项投资将评估单变量的生态指标和采样社区和死壳组合中的多元组成的相关性。第三个投资将结合这些物理和生物学结果，以模拟它们的相互作用并确定对这些栖息地作用的静态反馈。这项研究将通过识别底栖栖息地形成并由无脊椎动物群落成功的机制来弥合物理和生物海洋学之间的重要差距。这些见解将改善（1）化石记录中的古生态解释以及（2）在改变海洋条件的世界中管理沿海生物多样性的保护策略。这项奖项反映了NSF的坚定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来通过评估来通过评估来获得的支持。