Collaborative research: Copepod life history and lipid strategy in a changing Arctic - A new trait-based approach to data synthesis, modeling, and end-to-end integration

许多人认为，北极夏季海冰面积的减少将导致小型水生植物的生长加快，从而导致以这些植物为食的小型海洋动物(浮游动物)的生长。这些动物是大型动物的首选猎物，大型动物是当地北极居民生存和商业收获的重要来源。这个拟议的项目探索了浮游动物的营养价值可能会随着它们的数量和总质量的增加而改变的想法。因此，预测浮游动物数量增加的影响可能不像之前假设的那么简单。这一提议的动机是这样一个假设，即未来气候变化对高纬度浮游动物，如海鸟、鱼类和弓头鲸的影响，既来自于它们猎物质量(个体大小和脂肪含量)的变化，也来自它们猎物生物量的变化--质量的下降往往伴随着生物量的增加，而且往往超过生物量的增加。为了探索这一假设，PI将开发和应用一种新的模型，通过大型浮游动物的生活史模式，将气候强迫与对浮游动物的影响联系起来。一组协调一致的区域和大规模模型应用程序将检查中央假说的特定、本地版本，因为它适用于尺足类爬行动物及其捕食者，在这个过程中完善模型，确保其跨地区可移植性，并首次整合一些丰富的美国和欧洲浮游动物数据集。该项目将启动和扩大美国和丹麦研究人员之间的一系列合作。这些合作包括能力建设和与丹麦技术大学海洋生物中心的博士后交流，该中心是基于特征的海洋研究的领先中心。此外，利用华盛顿大学IGERT海洋变化项目的杠杆支持，PI将访问格陵兰气候研究中心(NUUK)，与M.Simon和其他同事合作，就土著海产品安全和气候变化的人类层面制定新的、以学生为中心的合作。这也是与那里的浮游动物、渔业和海洋哺乳动物研究人员分享早期模型结果的机会，并开发新的应用研究方向。

Many people have argued that the diminishing summer Arctic sea ice extent will result in enhanced growth of small aquatic plants and, consequently, the small marine animals (zooplankton) that feed upon these plants. These animals are the preferred prey of larger animals that are important sources of subsistence and commercial harvest for local Arctic residents. This proposed project explores the idea that the nutritional value of the zooplankton may be altered as their numbers and total mass increase. Thus, predicting the impact of an increase in zooplankton may not be as straightforward as previously assumed.This proposal is motivated by the hypothesis that the impact of future climate change on high-latitude planktivores, such as seabirds, fish, and bowhead whales, will come as much through changes in their prey quality (individual size and lipid content) as through changes in their prey biomass?with decreases in quality often accompanying and outweighing increases in biomass. To explore this hypothesis, the PIs will develop and apply a new kind of model that links climate forcing to impacts on planktivores via the life-history patterns of large zooplankton. A set of coordinated regional and large-scale model applications will examine specific, local versions of the central hypothesis as it applies to calanoid copepods and their predators, in the process refining the model, ensuring its cross-region portability, and also integrating a number of rich US and European zooplankton datasets for the first time.The project will initiate and expand an array of collaborations among researchers in the US and Denmark. These collaborations include capacity-building and a postdoc exchange with the Centre for Ocean Life at the Technical University of Denmark, the leading center of trait-based marine research. Furthermore, using leveraged support from the IGERT Program on Ocean Change at the University of Washington, the PI will visit the Greenland Climate Research Centre (Nuuk) to work with M. Simon and other colleagues on formulating a new, student-centered collaboration on indigenous seafood security and human dimensions of climate change. This is also an opportunity to share early model results with zooplankton, fisheries, and marine mammal researchers there, and develop new applied research directions.