SGER: Towards a New Functional Approach for Comparing Stream Ecosystems

河流生态学的一个新兴理论框架试图描述物理干扰如何在多个空间尺度上调节生态系统的结构和功能。这一新框架的主要目标是根据地貌学和水文学知识预测热带生态系统的生态属性，这些知识加在一起可以描述海底生境的稳定性或经常受到干扰的程度。PI将在功能方面(如生活史、迁移率、大小谱和形态行为属性)表征热带无脊椎动物群落，这些特征应该代表综合的有机体对物理干扰的反应。利用这些非分类指数，PI将检验群落结构与栖息地稳定性和干扰之间存在定量关系的假设。研究将在东部落叶生物群中精心挑选的10条溪流上进行，以分离出可能解释无脊椎动物群落结构变化的机制(栖息地干扰)。

An emerging theoretical framework in stream ecology attempts to describe how physical disturbance regulates ecosystem structure and function at multiple spatial scales. A major goal of this emerging framework is to predict ecological attributes of lotic ecosystems based on knowledge of geomorphology and hydrology, which together can describe how stable or frequently disturbed benthic habitats are. The PI will characterize lotic invertebrate communities in functional terms (e.g., life history, mobility, size spectra, and morpho-behavioral attributes) that should represent integrated organism responses to physical disturbance. Using these non-taxonomic indices, The PI will test the hypothesis that community structure is quantitatively related to habitat stability and disturbance. Research will be conducted on 10 carefully- selected streams in the Eastern Deciduous Biome to isolate the mechanism (habitat disturbance) hypothesized to explain much variability in invertebrate community structure.