OPUS: Linking species traits, community change and environmental change across scales to forecast how animal declines impact ecosystem function

OPUS：将不同尺度的物种特征、群落变化和环境变化联系起来，以预测动物数量减少如何影响生态系统功能

• 批准号: 2043012
• 负责人: Caryn Vaughn
• 金额: $ 18.77万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-05-01 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2043012&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: OPUS; Linking; species; traits; community

Human alteration of the environment has led to rapid declines in animal populations, particularly in freshwater habitats. When animals are lost, the important roles they play in ecosystems are also lost. Understanding the consequences of these biodiversity declines for the natural services they provide requires long-term data. Freshwater mussels are a good example. Few people know that they were once abundant and are now rare. They feed by filtering algae and other material from the water. This “biofiltration” helps with nutrient cycling and provides ecosystem services such as improved water quality for humans. This project will synthesize 30 years of data on mussel distribution, abundance, and community composition across rivers in the Ouachita Highlands of Oklahoma and Arkansas. Information on species biological traits, such as temperature tolerance, body size, and filtration rates, will be used to estimate how mussels help the environment and benefit humans. This will be combined with climate change projections to predict how these functions may change in the future. Products from this project will include journal articles, a book on mussel ecology, and an educational web site and poster on the mussels of Oklahoma.Long-term data are needed to understand how Anthropocene declines in animal biodiversity and abundance affects the ecosystem functions they perform, which are a product of interactions among species’ functional traits, the environment, and community composition. This project will synthesize 30 years of data on mussel traits (thermal tolerance, adult body size, life history strategy), mussel community structure (species richness, abundance, and biomass from 8 rivers in one biogeographic region, the Ouachita Highlands), mussel community change, environmental gradients (temperature and flow), and ecosystem function (biofiltration and nutrient cycling and storage) to: (1) Estimate mussel contributions to ecosystem function across spatial scales (mussel bed, river, biogeographic region); (2) Determine how mussel losses and environmental change have altered these contributions, and how this is related to species functional traits; and (3) Use species traits and projections for future stream flows and temperatures derived from downscaled climate models to forecast how these contributions will change in the future. All data will be made publicly available in a web-based, permanent archive.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.

人类对环境的改变导致动物种群迅速减少，特别是在淡水栖息地。当动物消失时，它们在生态系统中的重要作用也就消失了。要了解这些生物多样性下降对它们提供的自然服务的后果，需要长期的数据。淡水贻贝就是一个很好的例子。很少有人知道它们曾经很丰富，现在很稀少。它们通过过滤水中的藻类和其他物质来进食。这种“生物过滤”有助于营养循环，并为人类提供生态系统服务，如改善水质。该项目将综合30年来关于俄克拉荷马州和阿肯色州的沃希托高地河流中贻贝分布、丰度和群落组成的数据。有关物种生物学特征的信息，如温度耐受性，身体大小和过滤率，将用于估计贻贝如何帮助环境和造福人类。这将与气候变化预测相结合，以预测这些功能在未来可能如何变化。该项目的成果将包括期刊文章、一本关于贻贝生态学的书、一个关于俄克拉荷马州贻贝的教育网站和海报。需要长期数据来了解人类世动物生物多样性和丰度的下降如何影响它们所发挥的生态系统功能，这是物种功能性状、环境和群落组成之间相互作用的产物。该项目将综合30年来关于贻贝性状的数据（耐热性、成体大小、生活史对策）、贻贝群落结构（沃希托高地一个生物地理区域内8条河流的物种丰富度、丰度和生物量）、贻贝群落变化、环境梯度（温度和流量）和生态系统功能（生物过滤和营养循环和储存）：（1）估算贻贝在不同空间尺度上对生态系统功能的贡献（贻贝床、河流、地理区域）;（2）确定贻贝损失和环境变化如何改变这些贡献，以及这与物种功能性状的关系;以及（3）利用物种特征和从缩小尺度的气候模式中得出的对未来水流和温度的预测来预测这些贡献在未来将如何变化。所有数据将在一个基于网络的永久档案中公开提供。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

项目成果

Long‐term monitoring shows that drought sensitivity and riparian land use change coincide with freshwater mussel declines

长期监测表明，干旱敏感性和河岸土地利用变化与淡水贻贝数量下降相一致

• DOI: 10.1002/aqc.3884
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems
• 作者: Lopez, Jonathan W.;DuBose, Traci P.;Franzen, Alex J.;Atkinson, Carla L.;Vaughn, Caryn C.
• 通讯作者: Vaughn, Caryn C.