A breadth of discovery: aquatic organisms and the thermal integral; right whales and risk and food; ecosystem biomass spectra; and particle tracing

这个“发现”的建议涉及4个研究重点，涉及3名博士生和3名硕士生在未来5年。**（1）推进我们与生长度日尺度有关的研究，解决：（a）海洋外温动物的大小年龄变化，使用生长度日尺度来诊断大范围被开发种群中的大小选择性捕捞;即诊断大小选择性捕捞如何导致与较早/较小成熟相称的年龄大小减少，和B）通过使用GDD度量来解释水生生物（除鱼类之外）的分类学范围内的年龄大小变化，包括软体动物、甲壳类动物、棘皮动物等，以及爬行动物和两栖动物。**（2）完成涉及濒危露脊鲸的研究：a）估计Roseway盆地内露脊鲸的浮游动物食物能量密度的空间变化，B）使用来自Fundy和Roseway栖息地的历史浮游生物样本的20年时间序列来确定食物能量密度的年际变化是否可以解释鲸鱼占有、条件和繁殖的变化，c）确定每个生境内食物的空间和时间变化如何归因于水文特性和循环，以及d）完成我们关于量化露脊鲸与船只和渔具致命遭遇的空间和时间风险的研究，其中主要任务涉及状态空间模型，以估计鲸鱼在主要生境之间的运动;这些结果也将有助于加强上述其他分析。**（3）测试生物量谱模型解释诺森伯兰海峡生态系统生态结构和功能的空间和季节变化的能力，重点是自下而上和自上而下的过程。**（4）利用粒子示踪法确定压载水排放对淡水系统造成的入侵物种的命运，并处理幼龙虾的“连通性”以及圣乔治湾和诺森伯兰海峡内的源-汇扩散和迁移问题。

This "Discovery" proposal addresses 4 research foci involving 3 PhD students and 3 MSc students over the next 5 years. **(1) Advance our research related to the growing degree day metric (GDD) by addressing: a) size-at-age variation in marine ectotherms by using the GDD metric to diagnose size-selective fishing among a large range of exploited stocks; i.e. diagnose how size-selective fishing results in reduced size-at-age commensurate with earlier/smaller maturation, and b) by using the GDD metric to explaining size-at-age variation across a taxonomic range of aquatic organisms (beyond fishes) including molluscs, crustaceans, echinoderms, etc., as well as reptiles and amphibians. **(2) Complete research involving the endangered right whale by: a) estimating the spatial variation in energy density of zooplankton food for right whales within Roseway Basin, b) using a 20-year time series of historical plankton samples from the Fundy and Roseway habitats to determine whether inter-annual variation in food energy density can explain variation in whale occupancy, condition and reproduction, c) determining how spatial and temporal variation in the food within each habitat can be attributed to hydrographic properties and circulation, and d) by completing our research on quantifying spatial and temporal risk to right whales of lethal encounters with vessels and fishing gear where the primary task involves state-space models to estimate whale movements among and between major habitats; these results will also serve to strengthen the other analyses above. **(3) Test biomass spectrum models in their ability to explaining spatial and seasonal variation in the ecological structure and functioning of the Northumberland Strait ecosystem with an emphasis on bottom up and top down processes. **(4) Use particle tracing to determine the fate of invasive species from ballast water discharge in freshwater systems and to address larval lobster "connectivity" and source-sink dispersion and transport in St. Georges Bay and within the Northumberland Strait.