RAPID: Discovering Global Diversity in Pelagic Symbioses (Vessels of Opportunity)

Close relationships between different species, i.e., symbioses, are widespread and important biological interactions. Symbioses are integral to many wonders of the natural world, such as coral reefs and old growth forests, and are among the most important relationships for maintaining planetary and human health alike, including the pollination of flowering plants by insects, and the gut microbiome of large animals.

However, our understanding of symbioses in the seas — which cover 70% of the planet’s surface and constitute >99% of its habitable volume — is scant. The goal of this project is to conduct a rapid and time-sensitive global survey of the diversity of symbionts associated with jellyfishes and other animals that specialize in making a living in the open waters of the coastal seas and oceans.

This research will offer insights into adaptations to life in the world’s largest habitat by some of the most widespread and ecologically important predators on the planet. These symbioses likely also play other important roles, directly influencing the global carbon pump, and indirectly affecting coastal human activities as diverse as fisheries, power generation, and tourism.

This project includes a diverse team and provides training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and early career researchers.

Genetic analyses have revealed that marine metazoan species diversity is much greater than historical estimates and marine microbial diversity is immense. This project explores the idea that we are now poised to discover diverse marine metazoan-microbial pelagic symbioses. A rapid global survey of gelatinous zooplankton—a key convergent functional phenotype that has evolved independently in multiple phyla—is designed to estimate the prevalence of symbioses, the diversity of symbionts, and whether associations are constrained or flexible geographically, i.e., among populations within species, and taxonomically (at the levels of species and higher taxa).

This project will [1] build on and extend collections for the Aquatic Symbioses Genomics (ASG) program, [2] collect replicated samples of diverse taxa, preserved for multiple traditional and ‘omics analyses, in a standardized manner and including reference environmental samples and [3] barcode the hosts and primary symbionts (e.g., zooxanthellae) and meta-barcode the microbiome of a representative cross-section of specimens. By discovering and documenting marine pelagic symbioses, the project also sets the scene for comparisons with benthic symbioses.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.