Workshop: "Use of 15N tracer addition datasets to quantify and synthesize relationships between stream biodiversity..." to be held at Kansas State University - Dec. 2010

了解控制淡水栖息地生态系统过程和功能的生物因素对于维持水质和保护淡水生物多样性至关重要。利用来自世界各地源流15N同位素添加研究的已有数据集，本次综合研讨会将确定源流生物多样性、食物网结构和氮循环之间的关系。作为美国国家科学基金会资助的Lotic站点间氮实验（LINX）项目和后续相关研究的一部分，研究人员在北美、中美洲、欧洲、冰岛和新西兰的源头溪流中添加15N，以追踪和模拟不同地区和气候下的氮循环。这些示踪剂研究还产生了这些系统中食物网结构的大量数据，其中许多数据仍未分析。本次研讨会将召集17位河流生态学家，从研究生到教授，分析和合成这些河流中的食物网结构和氮循环。这些分析将允许对食物网结构和生物多样性如何影响养分的吸收和保留进行强有力的定量检查，这一过程对降水和纬度梯度的水质至关重要。本次研讨会产生的信息将进一步加深我们对生物多样性丧失、外来物种和气候变化对淡水生态系统健康和功能的影响的理解。这项综合工作的结果将在国家会议上提出，发表在同行评议的文献中，并在美国国家科学基金会长期生态网络和LINX项目网站上提供。讲习班的许多参加者都是职业生涯早期的科学家，他们将从参与这项工作中获益良多。这一努力还将通过汇集LTER和非LTER研究人员和数据集，扩大LTER研究的范围。

Understanding biological factors that govern ecosystem processes and functions in freshwater habitats is critical for maintaining water quality and conserving freshwater biodiversity. Using pre-existing data sets from 15N isotope addition studies in headwater streams in various regions of the world, this synthesis workshop will identify relationships between biodiversity, food web structure, and nitrogen cycling in headwater streams. As part of the NSF-funded Lotic Intersite Nitrogen eXperiment (LINX) project and subsequent related studies, investigators used 15N additions to headwater streams in North America, Central America, Europe, Iceland, and New Zealand to trace and model nitrogen cycling in different regions and climates. These tracer studies also generated considerable data on food web structure in these systems, much of which remains unanalyzed. This workshop will assemble a team of seventeen stream ecologists, ranging from graduate students to professors, to analyze and synthesize food web structure and nitrogen cycling in these streams. These analyses will allow for a robust, quantitative examination how food web structure and biodiversity influence nutrient uptake and retention, processes that are critical to water quality, across gradients of precipitation and latitude. Information generated from this workshop will further our understanding of the consequences of biodiversity losses, exotic species, and climate change to freshwater ecosystem health and function. Results of this synthesis effort will be presented at national meetings, published in the peer-reviewed literature, and made available on the NSF-Long Term Ecological Network (LTER) and LINX project web sites. Many of the workshop participants are early career scientists, who will benefit greatly from their involvement in this effort. This effort will also broaden the scope of LTER research by bringing together LTER and non-LTER investigators and data sets.