Collaborative Research: Stream Consumers and Lotic Ecosystem Rates (SCALER): Scaling from Centimeters to Continents

Scale, Consumers and Lotic Ecosystem Rates （SCALER）将解决的首要问题是：如何应用小规模生态实验来理解整个生态系统的行为？提供资金以解决以下问题：1)如何扩大对河流基本属性和动物对这些属性的影响的测量，以预测河流网络的生态系统特征。2)在北美范围广泛的生态系统（从苔原到热带森林）中，尺度模式是如何比较的？SCALER实验将在热带森林、温带山地森林、草原、北方寒带常绿森林和冻土带地区进行。这五个地区的溪流将以厘米到10厘米的尺度进行检查。在小、中、大溪流中有5米。将测量河流代谢（光合作用和呼吸作用）和营养吸收的速率，以及这些速率对动物排除的反应方式（用于模拟河流中动物多样性的丧失）。这些局部结果将通过建模与流域和区域的规模联系起来。流域尺度的预测将通过更广泛但不那么密集的抽样来验证。本文将提供如何将溪流中的生态测量和实验应用于流域的机制解释。这种尺度将在整个非洲大陆的五个地区中的每一个地区进行表征，以探索不同自然栖息地的尺度差异。该项目将产生的知识对于量化控制河流生态系统过程以及管理人类对整个流域的影响至关重要。实验和建模结果将与一般生态学相关，因为很少在任何环境中进行巢式，实验和理论耦合的缩放实验。研究结果将为淡水资源的保护、管理和恢复提供参考。资源管理人员将获得定量的基本原理和框架，以便将地方测量与区域模式联系起来。这个高度协作的团队将培养六名研究生，五名博士后，并指导三名早期职业教师。将鼓励更多的合作，通过与目标和研究设计有关的讲习班，在其他地点合作和执行类似的项目。

The overarching question that Scale, Consumers and Lotic Ecosystem Rates (SCALER) will address is: How can small-scale ecological experiments be applied to understand the behavior of entire ecological systems? Funds are provided to address:: 1) How should measures of fundamental properties of streams and effects of animals on those properties be scaled up to predict ecosystem characteristics of stream networks. 2) How do patterns of scaling compare across the wide array of ecological systems (from tundra to tropical forest) that occurs across North American? The SCALER experiment will be done in tropical forest, temperate mountainous forest, prairie, northern boreal evergreen forest, and tundra areas. Streams in each of these five areas will be examined at scales of centimeters to 10?s of meters in small, medium and large streams. Rates of stream metabolism (photosynthesis and respiration) and nutrient uptake will be measured as well as the way these rates respond to animal exclusions (used to mimic loss of animal diversity in streams). These local results will be linked to the scale of watersheds and regions by modeling. Watershed scale predictions will be verified by broader, but less intensive sampling. Mechanistic explanation of how ecological measurements and experiments in streams can be scaled to watersheds will be provided. This scaling will be characterized in each of the five areas across the continent to explore how scaling differs across natural habitats. The knowledge that will be generated by this project is essential to quantify controls on stream ecosystem processes as well as to manage human impacts on entire watersheds. The experimental and modeling results will be relevant to general ecology because few nested, and experimental and theoretically coupled scaling experiments have been undertaken in any environment. Results will inform those involved in conservation, management, and restoration of freshwater resources. Resource managers will gain a quantitative rationale and framework to link local measurements to regional patterns. The highly collaborative team will train six graduate students, five post doctoral students, and mentor three early career faculty members. Additional collaborations will be encouraged to collaborate and perform similar projects at additional sites through workshops related to the objectives and research design.