DISSERTATION RESEARCH: FORECASTING GLOBAL WARMING EFFECTS ON DEVELOPMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF PRAIRIE STREAM FISHES ALONG THE RIVER CONTINUUM

论文研究：预测全球变暖对河流连续体沿岸草原河流鱼类发育性能的影响

• 批准号: 1311183
• 负责人: Keith Gido
• 金额: $ 1.27万
• 依托单位: Kansas State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-05-01 至 2014-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1311183&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; FORECASTING; GLOBAL; WARMING

Predicting where species occur on a landscape is a fundamental aspect of ecology and an essential step in the conservation of biological diversity. Environmental niche modeling is a common tool for predicting species distributions, but limited understanding of causal relationships between the occurrence or abundance of a species and environmental variables limits the generality of these models. Improved understanding of how individual performance varies along environmental gradients is necessary to develop mechanistically-based environmental niche models. This research is motivated by the observation that the distribution of many stream fishes varies along a stream size gradient, but little is known about the mechanistic relationship between stream size and species distribution. The project will develop niche models to predict distribution of fish species in streams draining the Flint Hills of the central United States, which exhibit a strong temperature gradient from headwaters to large rivers. Given the universal importance of temperature as an environmental factor constraining metabolic, survival, and growth rates of individuals and vital rates of populations, it is predicted that temperature-dependent performance varies among species and determines among-species differences in distributional patterns. This study will test that hypothesis by quantifying inter- and intraspecific variation in egg developmental rate as a function of temperature to see if it explains differences in stream size - abundance relationships among four fish species.This study will provide mechanistically-based environmental niche models for four temperate freshwater fish species, which will inform conservation planners about current distributions and distributional changes in response to anthropogenic climate change. The project will also advance a broadly-applicable framework for developing environmental niche models for other temperate freshwater fish species, particularly threatened and endangered species. These models will be disseminated to state natural resource agencies and will be incorporated into planning tools used to inform conservation efforts in the Great Plains. This project will provide an undergraduate student with practical research experience in field and laboratory settings and support the dissertation research of a doctoral student.

预测物种在景观中的位置是生态学的一个基本方面，也是保护生物多样性的一个重要步骤。 环境生态位模型是预测物种分布的常用工具，但对物种发生或丰度与环境变量之间因果关系的有限理解限制了这些模型的通用性。 提高个人的性能如何不同沿着环境梯度的理解是必要的，以开发机械为基础的环境生态位模型。这项研究的动机是观察到，许多溪流鱼类的分布变化沿着流大小梯度，但鲜为人知的机制之间的关系流大小和物种分布。该项目将开发小生境模型，以预测美国中部弗林特山的溪流中鱼类的分布情况，这些溪流从源头到大河有很大的温度梯度。由于普遍的重要性，温度作为一个环境因素，限制代谢，生存，个人和人口的生命率的增长率，它是预测，温度依赖的性能各不相同的物种，并确定物种的分布模式的差异。本研究将通过量化卵发育率随温度变化的种间和种内差异来验证这一假设，以了解这一假设是否能解释四种鱼类之间溪流大小-丰度关系的差异。本研究将为四种温带淡水鱼类提供基于机制的环境生态位模型，这将告知保护规划者目前的分布和分布变化，以应对人为气候变化。该项目还将推动一个广泛适用的框架，为其他温带淡水鱼类物种，特别是受威胁和濒危物种，制定环境生态位模型。这些模型将分发给州自然资源机构，并将纳入规划工具，用于为大平原的保护工作提供信息。 该项目将为本科生提供实地和实验室环境中的实际研究经验，并支持博士生的论文研究。