CAREER: Identifying Ecosystem Properties Promoting Stability and Resistance: Modeling Late Ordovician Paleocommunity Dynamics and Functioning Across the Richmondian Invasion

今天，入侵物种导致了许多物种的灭绝，但仍然有许多科学家不知道新的、非本地物种如何改变生态系统的运作方式。研究人员将把化石记录中的信息输入到食物网的计算机模型中，以了解当新物种进入古代海洋生态系统时发生了什么。研究人员从过去学到的东西可以造福社会，因为它可能导致决定现在和未来类似物种入侵的后果。化石食物网络模型正在帮助研究人员了解生态系统中物种的数量与它们的稳定性之间的联系，以及生态系统在过去5亿年中如何以及为什么发生变化。为了让其他人可以在古生物学中使用化石食物网络建模，这个新的软件程序是免费的，可以在网上获得。辛辛那提系列(美国)保存了大量物种的涌入，这些物种被用来构建里奇蒙德入侵之前、期间和之后晚奥陶世浅海古群落的食物网模型，以检验确定生物移民对生态系统结构和功能的影响的假说。正在对古生代和极地生态系统进行比较，以深入了解预计在不久的将来发生的移民和入侵的后果。对模拟的食物网稳定性和抗性进行比较，以(1)确定不对称生物交换导致的生态系统动态变化，(2)分离促进稳定性和抗性的特性，以及(3)对极地入侵的结果做出明确预测。这些数据为大奥陶纪生物多样性事件的驱动因素提供了至关重要的见解，这是地球历史上最显著的海洋生物多样性持续增加事件之一。对本科生实习生的培训和对研究生的指导正在促进发现和理解。该软件项目的广泛传播正在增进对科学和技术的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Invasive species cause many extinctions today, but there is still a lot scientists do not know about how new, non-native species can change the way an ecosystem works. The researchers will enter information from the fossil record into computer models of food webs to understand what happened when new species arrived in ancient marine ecosystems. What the investigators learn from the past can benefit society because it can lead to determining consequences of similar species invasions today and in the future. The fossil food web models are helping researchers understand the connection between number of species in ecosystems and their stability, as well as how and why ecosystems have changed over the last 500 million years. So that others can use fossil food web modeling in paleontology, the new software program is free and available online. The Cincinnati Series (USA) preserves a well-documented influx of species that is being used to construct food web models of shallow marine paleocommunities from the Late Ordovician before, during, and after the Richmondian Invasion to test hypotheses determining the effects of biotic immigrations on ecosystem structure and functioning. Comparisons between Paleozoic and polar ecosystems are being made to provide insight into the consequences of anticipated immigrations and invasions expected to occur in the near future. Modeled food web stability and resistance are compared to (1) identify changes in ecosystem dynamics resulting from asymmetrical biotic interchange, (2) isolate properties promoting stability and resistance, and (3) make explicit predictions regarding the outcome of polar invasions. These data are providing crucial insights into the drivers of the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, one of the most significant prolonged increases of marine diversity in Earth history. Training of undergraduate interns and mentoring of graduate students are advancing discovery and understanding. Broad dissemination of the software program is enhancing scientific and technological understanding.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.