Using global change as a pseudo-experiment to build and test macroecological hypotheses

使用全球变化作为伪实验来建立和测试宏观生态假设

• 批准号: 261558-2011
• 负责人: Kerr, Jeremy
• 金额: $ 3.35万
• 依托单位: University of Ottawa
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2014-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=547807
• 关键词: Using; global; change; pseudo; experiment

Climate and land use changes are known to be causing many species to go extinct. A key challenge for ecologists is to discover ways to prevent such extinctions. This is a complicated job that must take account of species' evolutionary pasts to help predict their future. Making this job even more challenging is the fact that climate changes are leading to combinations of environmental conditions that are different than those in the past. That means that predicting the future requires extrapolation. To help make those predictions more reliable, this research program is pursuing tests of how species have responded to some of the quite dramatic climate changes of recent years, and considering how those changes may reflect the past evolution within particular groups of species throughout the Americas. We are pursuing these questions closer to home also by leading intensive field sampling of butterfly communities in regions where we have seen a lot of climate change in recent years, like western Alberta and the region around Ottawa, and where we also know that many species have begun to respond to climate changes. In other words, field work in these areas is likely to detect the effects we are looking for, if those effects exist at all. By putting different tests of biological mechanisms that may affect how species and whole groups of species respond to climate and land use changes, we hope to arm policy makers with better tools to manage biodiversity at home and abroad.

气候和土地利用的变化导致许多物种灭绝。生态学家面临的一个关键挑战是找到防止这种灭绝的方法。这是一项复杂的工作，必须考虑到物种的进化历史，以帮助预测它们的未来。使这项工作更具挑战性的是，气候变化正在导致与过去不同的环境条件的组合。这意味着预测未来需要外推。为了帮助使这些预测更加可靠，该研究计划正在测试物种如何应对近年来一些相当剧烈的气候变化，并考虑这些变化如何反映整个美洲特定物种群体过去的进化。我们也在离家更近的地方研究这些问题，在近年来我们看到气候变化很大的地区，比如阿尔伯塔西部和渥太华周围地区，我们也知道许多物种已经开始对气候变化做出反应。换句话说，在这些领域的实地工作可能会发现我们正在寻找的影响，如果这些影响存在的话。通过对可能影响物种和整个物种群体对气候和土地利用变化的反应的生物机制进行不同的测试，我们希望为政策制定者提供更好的工具来管理国内外的生物多样性。