Exploring interactions among climatic stressors and adaptive freshwater metacommunities

全球变化的生态意外证明，缺乏研究多种新颖和迅速的环境变化(即应激源)累积影响的概念性方法。应激源和物种之间的相互作用是这些意外事件的核心，因为它们会导致间接影响，而根据对单一直接影响的了解，这些间接影响是不容易预测的。然而，对非生物和生物(如竞争、捕食)相互作用、物种扩散和适应对压力群落的中介作用的机械理解仍然非常有限。不断演变的生态位和元群落概念的整合为发现涉及多种应激源的生态进化动态提供了一种工具，例如极端气候事件(例如干旱和热浪)。在这种方法中还必须考虑到功能物种特性，以便能够预测气候应激源对生态系统功能及其服务的净影响。我的提议的前提是，沿着海拔和纬度梯度探索池塘中的准群落可以揭示全球变暖如何影响生物多样性和功能表现。我的年轻科学家小组的几项发现是这项拟议研究的基础，这项研究将建立在我们的经验基础上，以调查多种应激源对水生生态系统的净影响。未来五年，我们将解决以下四个研究目标： 1.使用空间换时间的方法，在气候变化的背景下构建社区响应面。 2.测试干旱、高温和物种相互作用对当地群落的间接影响。 3.测试区域性物种池对气候压力较大的当地社区的“救援效果”。 4.测试局部物种气候生态位适应的潜力。 拟议研究的成功将在很大程度上取决于我指导一个充满活力的HQP团队的能力。我的战略仍然包括频繁的互动、建设性的批评、鼓励和实验室所有成员之间的资源共享。HQP接受各种学科的培训，包括古湖沼学、湖湖学、全生态系统和中生态系统实验、定量分类学和多变量分析。艾伯塔大学和我自己的实验室提供的最先进的研究基础设施使我能够提供全面的生态学和分类学培训，产生学术、政府和私人环境机构越来越需要的技能集，这些技能对对生物多样性和生态系统服务的影响进行环境评估。尽管我的重点是全球变暖的生态影响，但我提出的概念方法广泛适用于影响水生和陆地生态系统的其他多重压力源的研究。

The ecological surprises of global change attest to the lack of a conceptual approach to the study of cumulative impacts by multiple novel and rapid environmental changes (i.e. stressors). Interactions among stressors and species are at the core of these unexpected events as they result in indirect effects that cannot be easily predicted based on knowledge of single direct effects. However, mechanistic understanding of the mediating effects of abiotic and biotic (e.g., competition, predation) interactions, species dispersal, and adaptation on stressed communities remains very limited. Integration of the evolving niche and metacommunity concepts provides a tool for discovering eco-evolutionary dynamics involving multiple stressors, such as extreme climatic events (e.g., drought and heat waves). Functional species traits must also be considered in such an approach to enable forecasting of the net impacts of climatic stressors on ecosystem function and their services. The premise of my proposal is that exploring pond metacommunities along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients can reveal how global warming affects biodiversity and functional performance. Several discoveries by my group of young scientists are the basis for this proposed research, which will build on our empirical strength to investigate the net effects of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems. We will address these four research objectives over the next five years: 1. Using a space-for-time approach, construct community response surfaces in the context of climate change. 2. Test for indirect effects of drought, higher temperature, and species interactions on local communities. 3. Test for "rescue effects" by regional species pools on climatically stressed local communities. 4. Test the potential for climatic niche adaptation in focal species. Success of the proposed research will depend highly on my ability to mentor a dynamic HQP team. My strategy continues to consist of frequent interaction, constructive criticism, encouragement, and sharing of resources among all members of my lab. HQP receive training across a high diversity of disciplines, including paleolimnology, limnology, whole-ecosystem and mesocosm experiments, quantitative taxonomy, and multivariate analyses. The state-of-the-art research infrastructure provided by the University of Alberta and also my own lab enables me to provide comprehensive ecological and taxonomic training, generating skill sets that are increasingly in demand by academic, governmental, and private environmental agencies conducting environmental assessments of impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Though my focus is here on the ecological impacts of global warming, my proposed conceptual approach is broadly applicable to the study of other multiple stressors affecting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.