IRCEB: Interactive Effects of UV Radiation and Temperature on Pelagic Foodwebs

[210972] Williamson这项拟议研究的目的是了解温度和有色溶解有机物（CDOM）如何影响紫外线对湖泊食物网的影响。我们假设气候变化将在分子水平（通过改变温度）和生态系统水平（通过改变CDOM）调节紫外线损伤。我们假设高紫外线和低温条件有利于植物性食物网，而低紫外线和温度比条件有利于细菌性食物网，这对浮游动物、鱼类和生态系统的结构和功能有重要影响。一套精心设计的分析和实验方法将在实验室和不同海拔、不同UV和CDOM条件下的野外测试这些假设。人们普遍认为环境紫外线具有破坏性，但对紫外线损伤的分子修复如何随温度变化以及这些影响如何传播到生态系统水平知之甚少。拟议的研究将促进我们对湖泊如何应对未来与气候和臭氧变化有关的温度和紫外线变化的理解。学生将紧密地融入到研究中，为他们提供必要的各种定量技能，以解决环境生物学家在这个人类加速的环境变化时期面临的一些复杂问题。

0210972 Williamson The objective of the proposed research is to understand how temperature and colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) influence the impact of UV on food webs in lakes. We hypothesize that climate change will regulate UV damage at both the molecular level (by altering temperature), and at the ecosystem level (by altering CDOM). We hypothesize that high UV, low temperature conditions will favor plant-based food webs while lower UV: temperature ratios conditions will favor bacteria-based food webs, with important consequences for zooplankton, fish, and ecosystem structure and function. A carefully focused set of analytical and experimental approaches will test these hypotheses in the lab, and in the field at different elevations with different UV and CDOM conditions. It is widely recognized that environmental UV is damaging, but little is known about how molecular repair of UV damage varies with temperature or how these effects propagate up to the ecosystem level. The proposed research will advance our understanding of how lakes are likely to respond to future changes in temperature and UV related to alteration of climate and ozone. Students will be closely integrated into the research to provide them with the diverse range of quantitative skills necessary to tackle some of the complex issues that environmental biologists face in this period of human-accelerated environmental change.