DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Mitigating with macrophytes: How plants buffer aquatic communities from anthropogenic perturbations

在当代生态学中，考虑人类活动对环境的影响变得越来越重要。然而，一个同样重要但经常被忽视的挑战是考虑生态相互作用如何改善这些人类影响。在匹兹堡大学，我们开发了一个独特而创新的研究项目，通过调查人为干扰和生态相互作用的相互影响来解决这些当代挑战。具体来说，我们正在研究水生植物在多大程度上可以减轻进入淡水生态系统的人为压力源对环境的影响。虽然我们之前的工作已经表明，水生植物显著减少了压力源对生态重要水生物种的致命影响，但我们仍然对这种现象是否转化为复杂的群落知之甚少。为了迈出关键的下一步，我们将研究水生植物是否，以及在多大程度上，可以减轻单一暴露于高浓度压力源的影响，而不是反复暴露于复杂的水生食物网中较低浓度的压力源。这项研究将促进我们对人为干扰对生物群落的影响的理解，以及对大多数淡水群落的共同组成部分如何改变和潜在地减少这些影响的理解。除了进行这项研究和在科学界传播外，我们还开展了一系列活动，以提高公众的环保意识。例如，我们经常与K-12学生一起工作，在那里我们讨论我们的研究以及研究对保护的重要性。此外，我们每年在匹兹堡大学的生物野外站Pymatuning生态学实验室举办教师研讨会，在那里初中和高中教师学习如何为学生进行科学实验并将其融入课堂学习经验。我们希望，我们的研究和努力，为学生提供科学经验，在他们的职业生涯早期，将导致发展创新的新策略，以保护环境的未来。

In contemporary ecology, it is becoming increasingly important to consider the effects of human activities on the environment. However, an equally important, but often overlooked, challenge is to consider how ecological interactions may ameliorate these human impacts. At the University of Pittsburgh, we have developed a unique and innovative research program that addresses these contemporary challenges by investigating the interactive effects of anthropogenic perturbations and ecological interactions. Specifically, we are examining the extent to which aquatic plants can mitigate the environmental consequences of anthropogenic stressors that make their way into freshwater ecosystems. While our prior work has shown that aquatic plants dramatically reduce the lethal effects of stressors to ecologically important aquatic species, we still have a poor understanding of whether this phenomenon translates up to complex communities. To take this critical next step, we will examine whether, and to what extent, aquatic plants can mitigate the effects of single exposures to high concentrations of stressors versus repeated exposures to lower concentrations in complex aquatic food webs. This research will advance our understanding of the effects that anthropogenic perturbations are having in biological communities, but also of how common components of most freshwater communities can alter, and potentially reduce, those effects. In addition to conducting this research and disseminating it within the scientific community, we also engage in a number of activities to promote environmental awareness with the public. For example, we frequently work with K-12 students, where we discuss our research and the importance of the research to conservation. Further, we run annual teacher workshops at the University of Pittsburgh's biological field station, the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology, where middle and high school teachers learn how to conduct and integrate scientific experiments into classroom learning experiences for their students. We hope that our studies and efforts to provide students with scientific experiences early in their careers will lead to the development of innovative new strategies for conserving the environment in the future.