NSFGEO-NERC: Southern Ocean diatoms and climate change: quantifying the relative roles of diversity and plasticity in evolution
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Biological Sciences
Abstract
It is well known that climate change is rapidly altering polar habitats. However, it is largely unknown how organisms in those habitats will evolve and adapt in response to climate change. This hampers efforts to predict future changes in marine ecosystems. This research will examine how diatoms, an important group of plankton in the Southern Ocean, adapt to environmental change. During a research cruise to the Southern Ocean, diatoms will be sampled from different regions of the Southern Ocean, including the Drake Passage, the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean and the Ross Sea. Samples will be processed to examine genetic diversity in the field. In the lab, evolution experiments will be conducted to measure the rates of adaptation to increasing temperature and ocean acidification. Data on the diversity of field populations combined with data on rates of adaptability will provide key insights into the "evolvability" of marine diatoms. This project will support a doctoral student and a postdoctoral researcher as well as several undergraduates. These scientists will learn the fundamentals of experimental evolution, a skill set that is sorely needed in the field of ocean climate change biology. The project also includes a collaboration with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. The Metcalf Institute will design and implement a session focused on current research related to evolution and climate change to be held at the annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW).
Although it is well understood that climate change is rapidly altering polar habitats, the evolutionary response of cold-adapted, biogeochemically important phytoplankton is essentially unknown and represents a major knowledge gap that hampers efforts to predict future changes at the base of the marine food web. Both physiological and genetic variation are key parameters for understanding evolutionary processes in phytoplankton but they are essentially unknown for Southern Ocean diatoms. The extent of these two factors in field populations (physiological and genetic variation) and the interaction between them will influence how and whether cold-adapted diatoms can respond to changing environments. This project is focused on diatoms and includes a combination of a) field work to identify genetic diversity within diatoms across the Drake Passage, the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and the Ross Sea, b) experiments in the lab to assess the range of physiological variation in contemporary populations of diatoms and c) evolution experiments in the lab to assess how the combination of genetic diversity and physiological variation influence the evolutionary potential of diatoms under a changing environment. This research will uncover general relationships between physiological variation, genetic diversity, and evolutionary potential that may apply across microbial taxa and geographical regions, substantially improving efforts to predict shifts in marine ecosystems under global change. Results from this study can be integrated into developing models that incorporate evolution to predict ecosystem changes under future climate change scenarios. This project will support a doctoral student and a postdoctoral researcher as well as several undergraduates. These scientists will learn the fundamentals of experimental evolution, a skill set that is sorely needed in the field of ocean climate change biology. The project also includes a collaboration with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. The Metcalf Institute will design and implement a session focused on current research related to evolution and climate change to be held at the annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW).
Although it is well understood that climate change is rapidly altering polar habitats, the evolutionary response of cold-adapted, biogeochemically important phytoplankton is essentially unknown and represents a major knowledge gap that hampers efforts to predict future changes at the base of the marine food web. Both physiological and genetic variation are key parameters for understanding evolutionary processes in phytoplankton but they are essentially unknown for Southern Ocean diatoms. The extent of these two factors in field populations (physiological and genetic variation) and the interaction between them will influence how and whether cold-adapted diatoms can respond to changing environments. This project is focused on diatoms and includes a combination of a) field work to identify genetic diversity within diatoms across the Drake Passage, the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and the Ross Sea, b) experiments in the lab to assess the range of physiological variation in contemporary populations of diatoms and c) evolution experiments in the lab to assess how the combination of genetic diversity and physiological variation influence the evolutionary potential of diatoms under a changing environment. This research will uncover general relationships between physiological variation, genetic diversity, and evolutionary potential that may apply across microbial taxa and geographical regions, substantially improving efforts to predict shifts in marine ecosystems under global change. Results from this study can be integrated into developing models that incorporate evolution to predict ecosystem changes under future climate change scenarios. This project will support a doctoral student and a postdoctoral researcher as well as several undergraduates. These scientists will learn the fundamentals of experimental evolution, a skill set that is sorely needed in the field of ocean climate change biology. The project also includes a collaboration with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. The Metcalf Institute will design and implement a session focused on current research related to evolution and climate change to be held at the annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW).
Planned Impact
In addition to understanding the evolutionary potential of Southern Ocean diatoms, the proposed study will uncover general relationships between plasticity, diversity, and evolutionary potential that may apply across microbial taxa and geographical regions, substantially improving our ability to predict shifts in marine ecosystems under global change. Results from this study can be integrated into developing models that incorporate evolution to predict ecosystem changes under future climate change scenarios (eco-evolutionary models). Additionally, a subset of strains isolated as part of the project will be deposited at the National Center for Marine Algae allowing the broader research community access to those strains. This project will support a Ph.D. student at URI and a postdoc at UoE, who will learn the fundamentals of experimental evolution, a skill set that is sorely needed in the field of ocean climate change biology. Both PIs have a strong history of successfully mentoring graduate students and postdocs. During the research cruise, we will set up and post regularly to a cruise blog. Finally, we propose to work with the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting, housed at URI, to design and implement a session focused on current research related to the evolutionary implications of climate change to be held at the annual conference of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW).
People |
ORCID iD |
Sinead Collins (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Bishop I
(2022)
Thermal trait variation may buffer Southern Ocean phytoplankton from anthropogenic warming
in Global Change Biology
Boyd PW
(2018)
Experimental strategies to assess the biological ramifications of multiple drivers of global ocean change-A review.
in Global change biology
Collins S
(2020)
Evolution, Microbes, and Changing Ocean Conditions.
in Annual review of marine science
Melero-Jiménez IJ
(2021)
The role of changes in environmental quality in multitrait plastic responses to environmental and social change in the model microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
in Ecology and evolution
Rynearson T
(2022)
The Molecular Life of Diatoms
Samuels T
(2021)
Surviving Heatwaves: Thermal Experience Predicts Life and Death in a Southern Ocean Diatom
in Frontiers in Marine Science
Ward BA
(2021)
Selective constraints on global plankton dispersal.
in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Ward BA
(2019)
Considering the Role of Adaptive Evolution in Models of the Ocean and Climate System.
in Journal of advances in modeling earth systems
Description | We have grown and identified the diatoms isolated during our transect in the Southern Ocean last year. We have also completed and published an experiment on how diatom isolates respond to heatwaves of varying duration and magnitude. |
Exploitation Route | Once our culture collection is established, other researchers are free to use it. |
Sectors | Other |
Description | Are diatoms differently adapted to shifts in daylength? |
Amount | £7,720 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 2023_BPS_0234 |
Organisation | British Phycological Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2023 |
End | 12/2024 |
Description | SCOR working group 149 |
Organisation | University of Tasmania |
Country | Australia |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I have developed online materials (videos, text, interactive experimental design simulator), as part of SCOR working group 149 (https://meddle-scor149.org). I wrote and delivered the video on experimental evolution, collaborated on many of the other videos, and led the design of the storyboard for the experimental design simulator. These tools were launched in Nature Climate Change (Nature Climate Change 9, 357 (2019)). I am also part of the team that launched these tools at various international workshops and seminars on ocean global change biology during summer 2019, including IMBER (Brest, June 2019) and an early-career researcher workshop at the IAEA in Monaco in June 2019. We will also be running an international workshop for students and early career researchers before the High CO2 World Conference in Lima (2020). |
Collaborator Contribution | My collaborators were coauthors on papers, and provided the expertise and execution for parts of MEDDLE. SCOR 149 is led by Philip Boyd at the University of Tasmania; he continues to organize and lead this project. |
Impact | Online learning tool, including videos : https://meddle-scor149.org Review and synthesis paper: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14102 Best practices guide: https://meddle-scor149.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/MEDDLE-Handbook.pdf |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Cruise Blog |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Cruise blog for NBP1701. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
URL | http://www.gso.uri.edu/rynearson-lab/blogs/ |
Description | Interview with Cimate Central |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Interviewed for Climate Central, who sent two journalists on the NBP1701 Cruise to the Southern Ocean. They are putting together a feature on the research and scientists who were on the cruise. The cruise ended in late January 2017, final program is still in production. I have included a link below on similar work that Climate Central has already done on the cruise - our interviews have yet to be put up. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.climatecentral.org/what-we-do/our-programs/soccom |
Description | Reddit AMA "Ask a scientist" session for NBP 1701 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Reddit AMA "Ask a scientist" session for NBP 1701 organized by Greta Schum (Climate Central) on 30 Dec 2016 "Measuring climate change in the Southern Ocean" . I and other researchers on the cruise answered submitted questions using the Reddit platform. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/5kwock/science_ama_series_were_scientists_on_a_boat_in/ |
Description | youtube channel |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In collaboration with scifi author L.Lam and artist A.Naughton, I launched a youtube channels called "Choose Your Own Topia" that builds near-future possible urban worlds in which carbon emmissions of net zero have been achieved. This is done through episodes focused on world building interspersed with episodes where LL and I interview scientists, artists and activists. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://linktr.ee/cyotopia?fbclid=IwAR0qTcFQZIPeEzioxiiJNCjon4PpWPSvRnoByVGGP1Hp9bZ5eBIWHtPlKvY |