Integrating Evolution into Long-Term Ecological Research
Integrating Evolution into Long-Term Ecological Research
复制标题
将进化融入长期生态研究
DOI：
10.1093/biosci/biac042
复制
发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
10.1
通讯作者：
Avolio, Meghan L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Collins, Scott L;Avolio, Meghan L
美国长期生态研究 (LTER) 网络在主要基于现场的研究方面有着悠久的历史，重点关注生态系统过程，包括气候变化的生态影响，这将是即将推出的生物科学专题的主题。考虑到 LTER 网络建立的历史基础，对生态系统过程的关注是有意义的。 20 世纪 60 年代，生态学家受到国际地球物理年（1957-1958）成功的启发。一项计划在生态学方面进行了类似的尝试，最终产生了国际生物计划（IBP）。在规划会议期间，考虑到生态系统生产力对人类福祉的直接和间接影响，IBP 领导层确定了对生态系统生产力进行生物群落规模研究的目标。将研究范围缩小到生产力的决定剥夺了许多对人口和进化生态学感兴趣的生态学家的权利。尽管如此，美国的生态学家组织并成功游说国会提供资金参与IBP，并且该资金由美国国家科学基金会（NSF）管理。 IBP 于 1967 年至 1974 年运行，建立了“大生态学”，正如生态系统生态学家戴夫·科尔曼 (Dave Coleman) 所著的书名所精彩描述的那样。 IBP 结束后，NSF 于 1977 年、1978 年和 1979 年组织了研讨会，以确定如何分配以前专门用于 IBP 研究的资金。这些研讨会为开展长期实地生态研究提供了理由、核心重点领域和基本结构。选择的核心领域侧重于初级生产力、养分循环、有机物动态、种群动态和干扰，以便进行跨地点比较。在这些研讨会之后，1980 年，美国国家科学基金会环境生物学部首次征集长期生态研究提案。 1982 年、1984 年和 1988 年又发出了额外的征求建议书，最终建立了 19 个长期生态研究地点，其中 14 个至今仍然活跃。从 1990 年左右开始，对 LTER 站点的额外需求主要针对网络中未充分体现的生态系统（南极洲、海洋、城市）。其中许多站点均由 NSF（生物海洋学、极地计划）的其他部门资助。目前，LTER 网络中有 27 个研究站点，以及一个协调办公室和一个数据中心。尽管 LTER 网络传统上主要关注生态系统过程，但考虑到长期环境监测、现场实验和观测人口水平数据的历史，LTER 站点代表了一种前所未有的资源，可以支持对进化过程进行协调的长期研究。然而，LTER 站点在研究全球变化的生态进化反应方面仍未得到充分利用。由于最近一系列旨在将进化观点纳入长期生态研究计划的研讨会，所有这一切可能很快就会改变。这些研讨会的目标是在 LTER 站点的生态学家和各个职业阶段的进化生物学家之间建立对话。从逻辑上讲，生态进化研究将通过长期研究得到加强，并且将进化研究整合到数据丰富的 LTER 站点网络中是很有意义的。利用 LTER 来深入了解全球变化的进化反应将有助于预测生态系统未来如何运作，因为可能还有未知的生态进化反馈有待发现。
The US Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Network has established a long history of primarily site-based research with a strong emphasis on ecosystem processes, including the ecological impacts of climate change that will be the subject of an upcoming Special Feature in BioScience. The focus on ecosystem processes makes sense given the historical foundations that led to the establishment of the LTER Network. In the 1960s, ecologists were inspired by the success of the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958). A plan was hatched to try something similar for ecology, which resulted in the International Biological Program (IBP). During planning meetings, the IBP leadership settled on a goal to conduct biome scale studies of ecosystem productivity given its direct and indirect impacts on human well-being. The decision to narrow the scope of studies to productivity disenfranchised many ecologists with interests in population and evolutionary ecology. Nevertheless, ecologists in the United States organized and successfully lobbied Congress for the funds to participate in the IBP, and the funds were administered through the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The IBP, which ran from 1967 to 1974, established “Big Ecology,” as wonderfully described in the book by that title written by ecosystem ecologist Dave Coleman. After the IBP ended, NSF organized workshops in 1977, 1978, and 1979 to determine how to allocate the funds formerly dedicated to IBP research. These workshops provided the justification, core areas of emphasis and basic structure for conducting long-term, site-based ecological research. The core areas, which focused on primary productivity, nutrient cycles, organic matter dynamics, population dynamics, and disturbances, were chosen to allow comparison across sites. Following these workshops, in 1980, the Division of Environmental Biology at NSF issued the first call for proposals for Long-term Ecological Research. Additional requests for proposals were issued in 1982, 1984, and 1988, resulting in 19 long-term ecological research sites, 14 of which are still active today. Starting around 1990, additional calls for LTER sites were targeted toward ecosystems that were not well represented in the network (Antarctica, marine, urban). Many of these sites are funded by other sections in NSF (Biological Oceanography, Polar Programs). Currently, there are 27 research sites in the LTER Network along with a coordinating office and a data center.Although the LTER Network has traditionally focused primarily on ecosystem processes, LTER sites represent an unprecedented resource that could support coordinated, long-term research on evolutionary processes, given their history of longterm environmental monitoring, field experiments, and observational populationlevel data. However, LTER sites remain underutilized for studying eco-evolutionary responses to global change. All of this may change soon thanks to a recent series of workshops aimed at integrating evolutionary perspectives into long-term ecological research programs. The goal of these workshops is to establish a dialogue among ecologists from LTER sites and evolutionary biologists from a range of career stages. Logically, eco-evolutionary research will be enhanced by long-term studies, and integrating evolutionary research within a data rich network of LTER sites makes a lot of sense. Leveraging LTERs to gain insights to evolutionary responses to global change will assist with predicting how ecosystems will function in the future, as there are likely unknown eco-evolutionary feedbacks yet to be discovered.