| NSF Org: |
OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | June 12, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 12, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1446402 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
David Garrison
OCE Division Of Ocean Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | July 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | June 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $115,886.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $115,886.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2425 CAMPUS RD SINCLAIR RM 1 HONOLULU HI US 96822-2247 (808)956-7800 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
HI US 96822-2234 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | BIOLOGICAL OCEANOGRAPHY |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
As anthropogenic climate change intensifies, coral reefs face growing threats from associated decreases in ocean pH and increases in ocean temperature. While such stressors increase steadily through time, coral reefs also experience natural climate extremes, such as El Niño events, that rapidly reshape reef structure and function over a period of months. The El Niño event forecast for 2014/2015 presents the opportunity to study how such events affect coral reef ecosystems. This research will identify which species are most resilient to high temperature stress, and determine whether the presence of specific types of algal endosymbionts in the corals is predictive of the capacity of their coral hosts to survive temperature stress. By studying the reefs at remote sites with documented gradients in human use and pollution, the investigators will be able to tease apart the influence of El-Nino induced temperature changes from local impacts on the reef. This information will ultimately help to identify which components of the coral reef ecosystem are most vulnerable and provide a prognosis for the survival of different types of corals and endosymbionts in a warming world.
This project focuses on reefs at Christmas Island (2N, 157W) - a site that is predicted to be heavily affected by warming during El Niño. In September 2014, roughly 3 months prior to peak El Niño warming, the investigators will install an array of ocean monitoring equipment around Christmas Island. During that field trip, they will also conduct extensive ecological surveys of the reef, collect coral, water and sediment samples for the analysis of Symbiodinium communities that will be analyzed at the University of Hawaii using high throughput sequencing approaches, and characterize ocean geochemistry at both windward and leeward sites on Christmas Island. These activities will be repeated in subsequent trips during peak El Niño conditions, and post El Niño conditions, to allow the investigators to monitor the acute responses of the environment and ecosystem and their near-term recovery, respectively. During the last trip, they will drill several coral colonies to assess how the corals record such a large thermal stress in terms of skeletal morphological and skeletal geochemistry changes.
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