Resource Competition Theory: The Link between Climate Change and Diatom Sedimentary Assemblages in the YellowstoneEcosystem

这项研究解决了生态议程的主要问题之一：气候变化与生态群落的结构、功能和生存的关系。本研究的目的是：(1)研究美国黄石国家公园湖区8种优势硅藻对温度、光、硅、磷和氮的生理反应；(2)确定该物种的相对竞争能力；(3)对该物种的丰度和相对竞争能力进行实地研究。一组湖泊沉积记录，加上对黄石生态系统中正在进行的景观、气候和湖泊变化的积极而激烈的调查，为将资源竞争理论与硅藻组合、进化和灭绝的实地观察结合起来提供了无与伦比的机会。本研究将基于资源竞争理论的预测和结果与对黄石地区湖泊硅藻组合结构变化的观测相结合，以解释当前的硅藻分布，并检验全新世硅藻分布的成因。这项研究为湖沼学和过程导向的生理生态学之间提供了强有力的因果联系，为详细解释古记录提供了必要的信息，并为开发景观级传递函数奠定了坚实的基础，这将导致精细尺度的气候重建。

9407377 Kilham This research addresses one of the major concerns of the ecological agenda: the relationship of climate change to the structure, function and survival of ecological communities. The objectives of the study are (1) to characterize the physiological responses of the eight dominant diatom species from selected lakes of the Yellowstone National Park region to temperature, light, silicon, phosphorus, and nitrogen, (2) to determine the relative competitive abilities of the species, and (3) to perform field studies on the abundances and relative competitive abilities of the species. A set of lacustrine sedimentary records, coupled with active and intense investigations on landscape, climatic and limnological changes underway in Yellowstone ecosystems, provides an unparalleled opportunity to incorporate resource competition theory with field observations on diatom assemblages, evolution and extinction. This study will integrate the predictions and results based on resource competition theory with observations with changes in the structure of diatom assemblages in the lakes of the Yellowstone Region to explain the present diatom distributions and to test the causal factors proposed to explain diatom distributions over the Holocene. %%% This research provides a strong causal linkage between limnology and process-oriented physiological ecology to acquire information necessary for a detailed interpretation of the paleorecord and a firm basis for developing landscape-level transfer functions that will lead to fine-scale climate reconstructions.