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

广泛的发现：水生生物和热积分；

• 批准号: 183728-2009
• 负责人: Taggart, Christopher
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: Dalhousie University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=522946
• 关键词: breadth; discovery; aquatic; organisms; thermal

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.

这项“发现”计划涉及4个研究重点，涉及未来5年内的3名博士生和3名硕士研究生。**(1)推进我们与增长度日指标(GDD)有关的研究，办法是：a)通过使用GDD指标诊断大范围已开发种群中的大小选择性捕捞，促进海洋温带动物年龄大小的变化；即，诊断大小选择捕捞如何导致与较早/较小成熟相称的年龄大小减少，以及b)利用GDD指标解释包括软体动物、甲壳类动物、棘皮动物等在内的一系列水生生物以及爬行动物和两栖动物的年龄大小变化。**(2)涉及濒危露脊鲸的完整研究：a)估计罗斯韦盆地露脊鲸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20年历史浮游生物样本的时间序列，以确定食物能量密度的年际变化是否可以解释鲸鱼占有率、状况和繁殖的变化，c)确定每个栖息地内食物的时空变化如何归因于水文特性和循环，以及d)通过完成我们的研究，量化露脊鲸与船只和渔具的致命遭遇的空间和时间风险，其中主要任务涉及估计鲸鱼在主要栖息地之间和之间移动的状态空间模型；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)利用颗粒示踪确定淡水系统压载水排放造成的入侵物种的命运，并解决龙虾幼体在圣乔治斯湾和诺森伯兰海峡内的“连通性”和源汇扩散和运输问题。