Ecology in spatially and temporally structured environments

生物体及其栖息地在空间和时间上各不相同。揭示自然界中复杂的空间和时间模式所涉及的机制是生态科学中最重要的智力挑战之一。我们在了解社区的结构方面取得了显著进展，但仍然存在重大差距和相关挑战。时空环境异质性（资源或非资源）被广泛认为是生态群落结构的内在机制。迄今为止，关于空间和时间异质性的工作几乎完全集中在方差（多少）分量上。然而，类似水平的环境变化往往在空间（发生变化的地方）和时间（发生变化的时候）上有不同的结构，可能影响物种分布和它们共存的方式。关于空间和时间结构成分的重要性的工作有限（即，协方差或自相关）的环境的动态和模式的分布和共存的多个物种。 环境因素的结构成分可以直接等同于这些因素在时间和空间上的突然、急剧或平稳变化。由于物种对环境中空间和时间变化的反应和处理能力不同（例如扩散和生活史差异），物种分布和共存受到景观环境如何在空间和时间上变化和共同变化的影响。我的研究计划旨在回答有关环境的空间和时间结构如何影响物种共存模式的新的和基本的问题。这一系列的研究也有可能i）改善生态学家对待固有的时间和空间环境异质性的方式，通常被视为社区分析中的麻烦;和ii）确定即将到来的气候异质性在空间和时间上的预测变化可能会影响物种分布和未来的社区。 该研究计划将结合联合收割机大规模和小规模的调查，实验和定量的方法来量化环境中的空间和时间结构模式如何影响群落结构和物种共存的模式。我的研究团队将研究各种分类群（鸟类，鱼类和哺乳动物），因为它们的生态差异将使我们能够对比它们对环境异质性的反应。拟议的研究将为学生提供一个培训环境，通过基于实地的，实验的，定量的和理论的方法，建立高度可转移的技能，将概念和经验生态学联系起来。这项研究也将与我们正在进行的研究有关，政府和工业合作伙伴对气候变化和生态系统服务。

Living organisms and their habitats vary across space and time. Unraveling the mechanisms involved in complex spatial and temporal patterns in nature is one of the most important intellectual challenges in the science of ecology. Remarkable progress has been made in our understanding of how communities are structured, yet major gaps and related challenges remain. Spatial and temporal environmental heterogeneity (resource or non-resource) is widely recognized as a mechanism underlying the structure of ecological communities. To date, work on spatial and temporal heterogeneity has almost exclusively focused on the variance (how much) component. However, similar levels of environmental variation are often structured differently in space (where variation occurs) and time (when variation occurs), likely affecting species distributions and the ways they coexist. There has been limited work on the importance of the spatial and temporal structural components (i.e., covariance or autocorrelation) of environments on the dynamics and patterns of distribution and coexistence of multiple species. The structural components of environmental factors can be directly equated to how abruptly, sharply or smoothly these factors change in time and space. Because species vary in their responses to and abilities to handle spatial and temporal variation in their environments (e.g. dispersal and life history differences), species distributions and their coexistence are affected by how the environments in their landscapes vary and co-vary in space and time. My research program seeks to answer novel and fundamental questions about how the spatial and temporal structure of the environment influences patterns of species coexistence. This line of research also has the potential to i) improve the way ecologists treat inherent temporal and spatial environmental heterogeneity, commonly treated as a nuisance in community analyses; and ii) determine how upcoming predicted changes in climatic heterogeneity in space and time may affect species distributions and communities in the future. This research program will combine large- and small-scale surveys, and experimental and quantitative approaches to quantify how patterns of spatial and temporal structure in the environment affect patterns of community structure and species co-existence. My research team will work on various taxa (birds, fish and mammals) as their ecological differences will allow us to contrast their responses to environmental heterogeneity. The proposed research will provide students with a training environment that builds highly transferable skills in linking conceptual and empirical ecology through field-based, experimental, quantitative and theoretical approaches. This research will also have relevance for our ongoing research with government and industrial partners on climate change and ecosystem services.