CAREER: Mechanisms of Phytoplankton Community Re-organization Under Global Change

淡水正在成为全球主要的限制性资源。 全球环境变化刺激了地球仪水体中的有害藻华，不仅对水量而且对水质产生了负面影响，从而加剧了淡水资源的短缺。 该项目旨在了解和预测湖泊中的微型藻类群落如何以及何时由负责淡水中大多数有害生物的有毒藻类（特别是蓝细菌）占主导地位。 利用密歇根州的湖泊采样和数学模型，Litchman将探索全球变暖如何改变湖水运动，从而改变影响藻类生长的光照和温度等条件，包括有毒的蓝藻。 由于许多有害生物可以增加水中氮的可用性，该项目还将调查营养物质可用性的变化如何影响藻类群体之间的相互作用。 最后，Litchman将探讨有害蓝藻对气候变化的快速进化反应如何塑造微观藻类的群落组成并影响水质。在此期间，Litchman将在密歇根州立大学为高年级本科生和研究生教授一门关于野外水生生态学的新课程，重点是全球环境变化对水生生态系统的影响。 来自当地农村学校的教师将与PI合作，制定关于水生生态，水质问题和全球变化的适龄学习活动。 本科生和研究生将参加该项目，当地湖泊居民和湖泊协会也将参加，他们将协助取样工作，以检测形成有害生物的物种。Litchman将与欧洲同事合作，调整湖泊物理模型，以预测未来HAB的发生。

Fresh water is becoming a major limiting resource worldwide. Global environmental change is exacerbating freshwater limitation by negatively affecting not only water quantity but quality as well, through stimulating harmful algal blooms (HABs) in waterbodies across the globe. This project aims to understand and predict how and when communities of microscopic algae in lakes shift towards dominance by the toxic algae (cyanobacteria in particular) responsible for most HABs in freshwaters. Using lake sampling in Michigan and mathematical models, Litchman will explore how global warming alters lake water movement and thus conditions such as light and temperature that affect algae growth, including toxic cyanobacteria. Because many HABs can increase the availability of nitrogen in the water, the project will also investigate how changing nutrient availability affects interactions among algal groups. Finally, Litchman will explore how rapid evolutionary response of harmful cyanobacteria to changing climate shapes community composition of microscopic algae and impacts water quality. During this award, Litchman will teach a new course on Field Aquatic Ecology at Michigan State University for advanced undergraduate and graduate students focusing on the effects of global environmental change on aquatic ecosystems. Teachers from local rural schools will work with the PI to develop age-appropriate learning activities on aquatic ecology, water quality issues and global change. Undergraduate and graduate students will participate in the project as will local lake residents and lake associations who will aid in sampling efforts to detect HAB-forming species. Litchman will collaborate with European colleagues on adapting lake physics models to predict HAB occurrences in the future.