Award: DEB-1556874

This grant provided funding to generate and archive 30-year data series on coastal species at multiple sampling locations on Tatoosh Island, Washington and of the associated ocean conditions impacting these species. These series provide basic information on long term trends in these variables that are helpful to understanding coastal change, including species of cultural and economic value, and offer an unusually comprehensive data set to explore approaches for using ecological dynamics data to infer how ecological communities are organized and respond to environmental changes. A parallel 30-year experiment simulating local extinction of the dominant species in the system allowed rigorous testing of these approaches and revealed clearer trends in less common species that are suppressed by the dominant mussel. The data are posted to publicly-accessible web sites which allows the interested members of the broader society to explore the data and investigate the changing environment. Key findings include a continued persistent decline in ocean pH (ocean acidification) through time and the associated changes in the coastal carbon cycle, evidence that this change has affected the performance of key species including mussel resources, results showing that species with relatively low population variability are likely to be the most important species in an ecosystem and that commonly-used methods based on species association do not accurately reflect the web of species interactions, evidence that a region-wide pathogen outbreak in sea stars has dramatically shifted shoreline community structure , and support of new methods that allow field-collected data to be used to estimate key numbers in mathematical models. The project also provided logistical support to carry out other investigations including the role that microbes play in coastal kelp production and nutrient cycling, the ability for key ecosystem processes such as plant decomposition to adapt to shifts in individual variation across a landscape, and how changes in cyclical environmental variation, such as growing seasons and tidal regimes, shift the life cycle events of organisms, often in unexpected ways. The project facilitated STEM education of the general public in several ways, including providing training to 11 undergraduate students, 14 graduate students, and 3 postdoctoral scholars. It also facilitated the STEM training of an underserved Makah tribal community, which owns Tatoosh Island, by supporting research trips for 12 tribal high school interns to gain hands-on learning of research methods, and by facilitating visits to the island of 5 tribal scientists to exchange information and methods and explore opportunities for collaboration. Last Modified: 01/09/2023 Submitted by: John T Wootton