A Remote-Video Artificial Stream System for the Ecological Research and Education Center, University of Kentucky

快速发展的技术使以前无法触及的重要科学问题和问题为当代研究所触及。可视化、测量和测试对动物运动和空间分布的实时和空间理解的能力在环境迅速变化的时代尤为重要，栖息地和季节模式发生了变化，对生物和生态系统产生了重要影响。进行模拟自然条件和内置重复的相互作用的实验，可以展示模式，并以非常高的科学严谨性标准评估预测。这个新的溪流系统将允许在多个溪流通道中重复这种水平，以非常精确地记录鱼类、小龙虾、蛇等溪流生物及其食物的行为。这些和其他溪流生物的行为和分布决定了某些对生态系统功能或娱乐用途可能很重要的种群是否能够生存下来，或者可能会超越它们目前的极限并取代本地物种。了解这些生物在面对洪水、干旱、化学污染物和沉积等自然和人为干扰时的表现，就需要这样的设施来获得明确的答案。这项工作需要与当地学校的学生密切联系，在某些情况下，他们将能够直接参与这些研究，或者可以在教室里观察河流系统中动物的行为。这个项目建立在肯塔基大学生态研究和教育中心（EREC）野外站的基础上（见http://darwin.uky.edu/~erec/），通过建设一个新的设施来增强分析能力。其目标是加快已经与该站及其实地研究区域ERF（=生态研究设施）相关的研究项目的发展，吸引更多富有成效的研究人员，并加强与该地区其他大学、学院和K-12学校的联系。人工流系统将由远程控制视频构建，该系统将具有足够的灵活性，以适应各种问题和焦点生物，并将允许控制模拟相应自然环境所必需的物理条件。该系统将有足够的独立流，允许两个甚至三个研究以中等复制水平同时运行，或者一个研究以高复制水平同时运行。视频跟踪，控制位置和变焦从非现场，可以传输高分辨率视频从一个或所有10个摄像机到一个视频屏幕实时昼夜观察，存储和分析。通过地下光缆连接到该系统的计算机将能够实时可视化流中的行为，存储生成的大量数据，并促进数据分析，并与合作者、学校和其他研究人员共享。这种能力的结合将使我们对未被研究的动物和溪流生态系统的理解迅速发展，这是肯塔基州河流丰富的景观的重中之重。

Rapidly advancing technology has made important scientific issues and questions that were previously out of reach accessible to contemporary research. The ability to visualize, measure, and test the understanding of the movements and spatial distributions of animals in real time and space is especially important at a time of rapid environmental change, with altered habitats and seasonal patterns and important consequences for organisms and ecosystems. Performing experiments that mimic natural conditions and interactions with built-in repetition can demonstrate patterns and evaluate predictions to a very high standard of scientific rigor. This new stream system will allow this level of repetition in multiple stream channels to document the behavior of stream organisms like fish, crayfish, snakes and their food very precisely. The behavior and distributions of these and other stream organisms determines whether certain populations that may be important for ecosystem function or recreational use will survive or perhaps spread beyond their present limits and displace native species. Knowing how these organisms fare when faced with natural and human-caused disturbances like floods, droughts, chemical pollutants, and sedimentation requires just this kind of facility to obtain clear answers. This work involves a close connection with students in local schools, who in some cases will be able to participate directly in these studies or can watch behavior of animals in the stream system from their classrooms. This project builds on the emergence of the Ecological Research and Education Center (EREC) field station at the University of Kentucky (see http://darwin.uky.edu/~erec/) by incorporating enhanced analytical capabilities through the construction of a new facility. The goals are to accelerate the development of research programs already associated with the station and its field research area ERF (= Ecological Research Facility) and to attract additional productive researchers and strengthen links with other universities, colleges, and K-12 schools in the region. An artificial stream system will be constructed with remote-controlled video that will be flexible enough to accommodate a diversity of questions and focal organisms and will allow control over physical conditions essential to mimicking the corresponding natural environments. The system will have enough independent streams to allow two or even three studies to run simultaneously at modest levels of replication or one study at high replication. The video tracking, controlled for position and zoom from off-site, can transmit high-resolution video from one or all 10 cameras to a single video screen for real-time day/night observation, storage, and analysis. A computer linked to the system by an underground fiber-optic cable will enable visualization of behavior in the streams in real time, store the large amount of data generated, and facilitate data analysis and sharing with collaborators, schools, and other researchers. This combination of capabilities will allow rapid advances in our understanding of the under-studied animals and ecosystems of streams, a high priority in Kentucky's stream-rich landscapes.