Temporal metacommunity dynamics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

My research program examines the structure and dynamics of biological communities in both aquatic and terrestrial contexts. My research is organized around the concept of metacommunity dynamics which explores how dispersal between local communities influences local abiotic and biotic environmental processes. I believe that with this very general concept, ecologists will be able to provide a very powerful framework to explain the differences in spatial and temporal structure in taxonomic composition we detect in communities around us. Moreover it will provide a predictive framework to study applied problems related to conservation and climate change since it focuses on mechanisms that can be quantified. I use a combination of observational, experimental, modelling, and synthesizing techniques to make this transition from explanation to prediction. I will expand my expertise of metacommunity research to explore the neglected effect of temporal dynamics, with the ultimate objective of providing an example of a predictive model system for an empirical metacommunity. To achieve this, I will continue to use my research strategy of combining detailed studies in the Churchill rockpool metacommunity system, and analyses of existing data sets, and expand it by including a modelling component. My specific objectives are to: 1) measure and model dispersal in a subarctic metacommunity system, 2) test temporal dynamics of metacommunities by investigating the effects of dispersal on temporal synchrony between local communities and priority effects within local communities in a range of systems, 3) combine the results of competition experiments with the results of Objectives 1 and 2 to parametrize a predictive model for the Churchill rock pool metacommunity and test the temporal predictions of this model. After these 5 years, I plan to increase the spatial scale of my studies by starting to monitoring rock bluffs along the full latitudinal gradient of Hudson Bay, and determine how fast the environment will react to the predicted and actual climate changes.