Zoogeography and Ecology of Groundwater Invertebrates

这项研究将验证这样一种观点，即在北美东部未被冰川覆盖的中生代地区的地下水中，生活着一种独特的古代、特有的、特殊的无脊椎动物。根据北美东部洞穴和地表水动物群的分布，可以预期存在这样一种动物群。这个想法将通过分析加拿大边境和墨西哥湾之间15-20个地点的浅层地下水（潜流区）的无脊椎动物群落来验证。这项研究的结果将有助于回答几个重要问题，包括：(i)动物地理学和地下水动物的进化；(2)不同演化时代地下水群落的生态结构与功能；（iii）地下水群落中表生通才和下生专家之间的相互作用；（四）预测地下水群落对全球气候变化的响应；(v)预测地下水群落对灾难性扰动的反应；（六）阐明地下水无脊椎动物的进化和生理生态学。该项目将有助于地下水群落的基本生态学，这是生态学家主要感兴趣的领域，并将增加对应用科学有用的知识库。

This research will test the idea that a distinctive fauna of ancient, endemic, specialized invertebrates lives in the groundwaters of unglaciated Mesozoic terrain in eastern North America. The existence of such a fauna is to be expected based on the distribution of the faunas of caves and surface waters in eastern North America. This idea will be tested by analyzing the invertebrate communities of shallow groundwater (the hyporheic zone) at 15-20 sites between the Canadian border and the Gulf of Mexico. The results of this research will help to answer questions about several important topics, including: (i) the zoogeography and evolution of the groundwater fauna; (ii) the ecological structure and function of groundwater communities of different evolutionary ages; (iii) interactions between epigean generalists and hypogean specialists in groundwater communities; (iv) predicting the response of groundwater communities to global climate change; (v) predicting the response of groundwater communities to catastrophic disturbance; and (vi) elucidating the evolutionary and physiological ecology of groundwater invertebrates. The project will contribute to the basic ecology of groundwater communities, an area of major interest among ecologists, and will add to the knowledge base useful for applied science.