RUI: Documenting, Understanding and Conserving the Biodiversity of Freshwater Siliceous Algae in Coastal Ponds Along Eastern North America

项目摘要本项目的主要重点是对北美东海岸淡水湖泊和池塘中两种生物多样性和生态重要性的藻类进行详细调查。鳞藻和硅藻是所有水生栖息地的组成部分，也是科学家用来探测我国水资源变化的最著名的生物之一。尽管鳞片苔藓和硅藻很重要，但事实是，沿着北美边缘的大片地理区域对这两类生物来说仍未被探索。我们的目标将包括描述沿海特定地区这些藻类生物的区系，向科学描述新物种，评估化学变量与气候相关因素在塑造和控制这些生物沿亚热带到北极梯度分布中的相对重要性，并培养一批在分类学和生态学问题上高度积极的本科生。作为该项目的一部分，我们将调查大西洋沿岸平原、新斯科舍省、纽芬兰、拉布拉多和加拿大北极地区的水体，并将这些信息添加到我们现有的数据库中，以实现我们的目标。我们将使用高分辨率光学和扫描电子显微镜来记录所有物种，并将我们的样本存档在国家博物馆，以便其他科学家可以使用。根据世界自然基金会（WWF）的一项深入研究，北美东海岸的许多地区因其水生生物的独特性而被评为“高”，“大陆优秀”或“全球优秀”。这些地区在未来（未来20年）的栖息地威胁评估预测为“高”，并被世界自然基金会评为北美“濒危”或“脆弱”地区。基于这项深入的研究，作为我们项目的一部分，所有取样的地区都需要立即采取生物多样性保护措施。结合我们之前的结果，我们的工作将包括对世界自然基金会（WWF）定义的横跨北美大陆东海岸从亚热带佛罗里达到北极的七个淡水生态区的池塘中两种藻类的详细分析。我们研究的一个主要目标是为所有七个沿海生态区提供两种生态上重要的藻类种群的详细生物多样性评估，这将补充现有的水生动物数据库，并加强保护工作，包括国家公园管理局、森林管理局和加拿大公园管理局的数据库。美国国家科学基金会的一个目标是增加科学工作者的分类学专业知识，特别是对于鲜为人知的微生物。我们的课程将通过培养具有高度分类学技能的自信学生来帮助应对这一挑战，这些学生渴望在生物多样性相关领域从事职业。

Project AbstractThe primary focus of this project is to provide detailed surveys of two biologically diverse and ecologically important groups of algae in freshwater lakes and ponds along the east coast of North America. The scaled chrysophytes and diatoms are integral components of all aquatic habitats and are among the best known organisms used by scientists to detect changes in our nations water resources. Despite the importance of scaled chrysophytes and diatoms, the fact remains that large geographic regions along the margin of North America remain largely unexplored for both groups of organisms. Our goals will include describing the floras of these algal organisms for specific regions along the coast, describing new species to science, evaluating the relative importance of chemical variables vs. climate-related factors in shaping and controlling the distributions of these organisms along a subtropical to arctic gradient, and to train a group of highly motivated undergraduates in taxonomy and ecology issues. As part of this project, we will survey waterbodies along the Atlantic Coastal Plain, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Labrador and the Canadian Arctic, and add this information to our existing databases in order to accomplish our goals. We will use high resolution light and scanning electron microscopy to document all species, and archive our samples in national museums making them available to other scientists.According to an in-depth study conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), numerous regions along the eastern coast of North America were ranked "high", "continentally outstanding" or "globally outstanding" for their aquatic biological distinctiveness. Many of these same regions had future (next 20 years) habitat threat assessment projections of "high", and were rated by the WWF as "endangered" or "vulnerable" areas in North America. Based on this thorough study, all regions to be sampled as part of our project warrant immediate biodiversity protection efforts. When combined with our previous results, our work will include detailed analyses of both algal groups in ponds from all seven freshwater ecoregions defined by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that span the east coast of the North American continent from subtropical Florida to the Arctic. A primary goal of our study will be to provide detailed biodiversity evaluations of two ecologically important algal groups for all seven coastal ecoregions that will complement existing databases for aquatic animals and enhance conservation efforts, including those of the National Park Service, the Forest Service and Parks Canada. A goal of NSF is to increase taxonomic expertise among the scientific work force, especially for poorly known microscopic organisms. Our program will help meet this challenge by yielding confident students with a high degree of taxonomic skill eager to pursue careers in biodiversity-related fields.