US-Canada Planning Visit: Building a Transboundary Research Program to Understand the Influence of Climate Change on Southern Range Limits

美加规划访问：建立跨境研究计划以了解气候变化对南部山脉界限的影响

• 批准号: 1427542
• 负责人: Daniel Thornton
• 金额: $ 4.73万
• 依托单位: Washington State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1427542&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: US; Canada; Planning; Visit; Building

Climate change will profoundly influence the distribution and abundance of species across the planet. Cold-adapted species may be especially prone to retract their range at the southern edge of their distribution as the climate warms, but our understanding of possible range shifts for this group is incomplete. Within North America, addressing these effects on these southern populations is additionally complicated by the fact that southern range limits for many cold-adapted species fall along the U.S.-Canada border. A joint U.S.-Canada research collaboration that addresses the influence of climate change on southern populations of Canada lynx will develop from this project. This project will have theoretical significance in terms of increasing our knowledge regarding what limits the geographic range of species, as well as applied conservation relevance, by providing improved predictions of response to climate change for a threatened predator. Moreover, this transboundary collaboration will increase the scope and importance of subsequent research on Canada lynx, as well as provide a model for cross-border research that can be applied to other species.Predicting the consequences of a changing climate for the distribution and abundance of species remains a key challenge in ecology. Simple models that predict how the range of a species will shift in the future based on changing climatic conditions are commonly applied, but such models are often inaccurate because they lack ecological realism. The challenge of predicting species response to climate change is particularly difficult at the southern range limits of species, where climate change impacts are poorly understood and complex. The ultimate goal of this project will be to examine the influence of climate, biotic interactions (competition and predation), and population spatial structure on southern range limits of Canada lynx. This international collaboration will build a highly coordinated team of experts, with complementary expertise and datasets, which will allow for meaningful transboundary research and conservation. As a result, the products that emerge from the project will provide guidelines for a research strategy that will furnish new insights into the biology of southern lynx populations.

气候变化将深刻影响全球物种的分布和丰富程度。随着气候变暖，适应寒冷的物种可能特别容易在其分布的南部边缘收缩其范围，但我们对这一群体可能的范围变化的理解是不完整的。在北美，解决这些对这些南方种群的影响是额外复杂的事实，南方的范围限制许多冷适应物种下降沿着美国-加拿大边境。一个美国-加拿大研究合作，解决气候变化对加拿大南部人口的影响猞猁将从这个项目发展。该项目将具有理论意义，在增加我们的知识，是什么限制了物种的地理范围，以及应用保护的相关性，通过提供更好的预测响应气候变化的威胁捕食者。此外，这种跨境合作将增加加拿大猞猁后续研究的范围和重要性，并为可应用于其他物种的跨境研究提供模型。预测气候变化对物种分布和丰度的影响仍然是生态学的一个关键挑战。通常采用简单的模型来预测物种的范围将如何根据气候条件的变化在未来发生变化，但这种模型往往是不准确的，因为它们缺乏生态现实主义。预测物种对气候变化的反应的挑战在物种的南部范围界限特别困难，那里的气候变化影响知之甚少，而且很复杂。该项目的最终目标将是研究气候，生物相互作用（竞争和捕食）和人口的空间结构对加拿大猞猁南部范围限制的影响。 这一国际合作将建立一个高度协调的专家团队，拥有互补的专业知识和数据集，这将使有意义的跨界研究和保护成为可能。因此，该项目产生的产品将为研究策略提供指导，为南部猞猁种群的生物学提供新的见解。