2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Understanding the Impacts of Ocean Acidification: from Biodiversity to Ecosystem Functioning
| Project/Area Number |
17K17622
|
|---|
| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
|
| Keywords | Ocean Acidification / CO2 seeps / Community Succession / Biodiversity / Ecosystem Functioning |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The proposed research seeks to characterise how biodiversity and ecosystem-functioning of whole communities will be altered by ocean acidification. FY2017 predominantly involved the setup and deployment of the experiment. After 2 and 4 months, the initial recruitment greatly differed between the reference- and elevated-CO2 sites with a highly reduced abundance of macroalgae (particularly calcified algae) in the elevated-CO2 site; which led to reduced gross primary production and calcification rates. Such a pattern persisted at 9 months, where community succession had clearly progressed in the reference-CO2 sites, with tiles now exhibiting a highly diverse macroalgae community with near total coverage. The elevated-CO2 sites in comparison, showed reduced coverage (similar to the reference site at 4 months) and reduced rates of gross primary production and calcification in comparison to the reference site. This suggests that the development and community succession during ocean acidification may be slowed, requiring more time to reach their climax communities, with the suggestion that future communities may not be able to provide the same ecosystem functions as present-day communities.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The recruitment substrates (130 x 130 mm volcanic rock tiles) were deployed in Shikine-Jima (Izu Islands, Japan) in two zones: (i) near to the natural CO2 seeps (High-CO2, 900 ppm), and (ii) in a nearby bay for control conditions (reference-CO2, 300 ppm). A total of 50 tiles were deployed (n = 25 per zone) with a subset of five tiles collected and analysed after 2, 4, and 9 months. Each tile had photographs taken of it in the laboratory (topside and underside) in order to perform initial species identification and % cover; the tiles were then measured for gross primary production and calcification in a measure of the tiles community production rate; and finally preserved at -20 °C for DNA extraction.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
FY2018 will involve collecting the final set of tiles (18 months), and then carrying out all of the DNA extractions using a Powermax Soil DNA Isolation Kit (MO-BIO) on homogenised tissue scraped from each tile. The extracted DNA will then be stored at -20 °C until being used for DNA meta-barcoding. PCR amplification, tagging, and sequencing will be carried out following an established protocol. In brief, three replicate PCR assays will be used to amplify an >300-bp of universal primers - COI and 18S (eukaryotic organisms) and 16S (prokaryotic organisms) fragments - in each replicate sample. A combination of tailed PCR primers and barcode adapters will be used (hierarchical tagging approach), with amplicons being sent for sequencing. Data analysis will use a pre-established bioinformatics pipeline. FY2018 will therefore also include the majority of publication writing and dissemination of results.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
The majority of the requested funds for the Next Fiscal Year are to be used for the sequencing associated with the DNA metabarcoding approach (Illumina Sequencing). This will involve sending the extracted DNA to a company for sequencing.
The conference 'International Temperate Reef Symposium' will be also attended in January 2019, in Hong Kong University.
|
