The challenge for ecologists ultimately trying to understand the causes of patterns of community structure, species diversity and community assembly is to integrate the influences of large- scale processes (i.e. climatic forcing, input from regional species pool, etc.) occurring at low frequencies with the more chronic effects of biotic and abiotic processes operating on smaller spatial scales. This challenge is particularly relevant in marine benthic communities where many species have planktonic larvae that disperse in the overlying water column before they settle to the bottom. Consequently, adult assemblages in a local patch of habitat are influenced by a variety of global and regional processes from basin wide currents transporting larvae to direct impacts of elevated ocean temperature during El Nino events.
The investigators of this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will study the effects of large-scale processes on local marine communities by investigating the impacts of the present El Nino on the functioning of subtidal ecosystems in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. This SGER project builds on initial NSF funded research on upwelling effects in the rocky subtidal zone of the Galapagos where it has been demonstrated that upwelling links bottom up (food, nutrients) and top down (predatory) forces via recruitment of an important prey species (barnacles). Moreover, physical and biotic variables have been monitored during 4-6 years of pre-El Nino conditions, setting the stage for post-El Nino comparisons.
Broader impacts include increasing our understanding of ecological effects of climate change in the ocean by linking coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon on large scales to local marine community dynamics. The results of this research will be used Galapagos Marine Reserve. Educational impacts include training in marine ecology for two graduate students and one undergraduate student. One of the graduate students is an underrepresented minority female
