Aquatic invertebrate ecology and paleoecology in Arctic and temperate ecosystems

北极和温带生态系统的水生无脊椎动物生态学和古生态学

• 批准号: 312080-2012
• 负责人: Quinlan, Roberto
• 金额: $ 1.53万
• 依托单位: York 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=526381
• 关键词: Aquatic; invertebrate; ecology; paleoecology; Arctic

My long-term research goals include examining long-term variability in freshwater ecosystems in response to human-influenced and natural stressors. This research uses both neo- and paleo-limnological techniques. In Arctic systems, at present there are large deficiencies in our understanding of freshwater ecology. Long-term dynamics of benthic communities in freshwater aquatic systems are little known, and current knowledge of Arctic benthos is scarce and mainly derived from faunal taxonomic surveys with little or no accompanying ecological context. As the benthos are the dominant or sole energy pathway between primary producers and top trophic levels (e.g. fish and birds) in ponds and lakes, it is therefore difficult to assess or predict food-web consequences of enhanced-greenhouse climate warming in high latitude regions. In temperate systems, a multitude of anthropogenic stressors (including recent human-induced climate warming, watershed disturbances, to name a few), are influencing aquatic ecosystems with unknown consequences, as little is known about how these stressors interact to influence ecosystems, and there is often a lack of pre-disturbance data about the ecological condition of systems that have been affected by anthropogenic or natural stressors over long time scales. Lack of knowledge about pre-disturbance conditions makes it difficult to properly assess the effects of these stressors on the ecological condition and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. This research will generate critical baseline ecological data both through the limnological sampling of benthic invertebrate populations in ponds and lakes, and determining pre-disturbance conditions via paleolimnological approaches. This research will provide assessments of the ecological response of aquatic systems to long-term environmental change, through the paleolimnological analysis of lake and pond sediments. This research also involves the development of new paleolimnological approaches to expand the number of indicators that can be utilized to assess long-term ecological variability and response to stressors using paleolimnological methods.

我的长期研究目标包括研究淡水生态系统在应对人类影响和自然压力时的长期变异性。这项研究同时使用了新湖沼学和古湖沼学技术。在北极系统中，目前我们对淡水生态的认识存在很大不足。淡水水生系统中底栖动物群落的长期动态鲜为人知，目前关于北极底栖动物的知识很少，主要来自动物分类调查，很少或根本没有伴随的生态背景。由于底栖生物是池塘和湖泊中初级生产者和顶级营养水平(如鱼类和鸟类)之间的主要或唯一能量途径，因此很难评估或预测高纬度地区温室气候变暖加剧对食物网的影响。在温带系统中，许多人为应激源(包括最近人为引起的气候变暖、流域扰动等)正在影响水生生态系统，后果未知，因为人们对这些应激源如何相互作用影响生态系统知之甚少，而且往往缺乏关于长期受到人为或自然应激源影响的系统的生态状况的干扰前数据。由于缺乏对干扰前条件的了解，很难适当评估这些应激源对水生生态系统的生态条件和功能的影响。这项研究将通过对池塘和湖泊中的底栖无脊椎动物种群进行湖沼学采样，以及通过古湖沼学方法确定干扰前的条件，来产生关键的基线生态数据。这项研究将通过对湖泊和池塘沉积物的古湖沼学分析，评估水生系统对长期环境变化的生态响应。这项研究还涉及开发新的古湖沼学方法，以扩大可用于评估长期生态变异性和利用古湖沼学方法对应激源作出反应的指标的数量。