2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Understanding the Impacts of Ocean Acidification: from Biodiversity to Ecosystem Functioning
| Project/Area Number |
17K17622
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Research Field |
Environmental impact assessment
Ecology/Environment
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| Research Institution | University of Tsukuba |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Ocean Acidification / Community Succession / Biodiversity / Climate Change / Meta-barcoding / Ecosystem Functioning |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
Long-term exposure to CO2 can considerably alter community development, often resulting in simplified systems dominated by turf algae that possess reduced biodiversity and low ecological complexity. Current understanding of the underlying processes by which ocean acidification alters biological community development and stability remains limited, making the management of such shifts problematic. Here, we found that assemblages in reference pCO2 conditions continued to gain species through time and had developed more structurally complex communities with clearly defined understory and canopy species. In contrast, the assemblages in the elevated pCO2 became arrested in terms of their successional development due to competition for space by the turf algae, resulting in a highly simplified community. By understanding the ecological processes responsible for driving shifts in community composition, we can better assess how communities are likely to be altered by ocean acidification.
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| Free Research Field |
Climate Change Marine Ecology
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
人間活動に伴い、沿岸の生態系の構造や機能が劇的に変化しています。特に、海藻の海中林やサンゴ礁がマット状の微細藻類に置き換わると、我々人類にとっての生態系の価値は著しく失われます。これから数十年で、多様で複雑性の高い環境が日和見種(短寿命で成長速度の大きな種)とされる微細藻類に置き換わるかもしれません。さらに、微細藻類が卓越すると他の生物種の加入が妨げられ、生態系の遷移が停止することも明らかとなりました。このようなフィードバックの仕組みは、様々なレベルでの環境変化に対して閾値を踏み越えた生態系の安定化を説明するものであり、沿岸生態系の価値を守るための適応戦略に組み入れることが必要です。
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