Global patterns and processes of organismal niche in the marine environment

海洋环境中生物生态位的全球模式和过程

• 批准号: RGPIN-2017-04922
• 负责人: Hussey, Nigel
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: University of Windsor
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=631822
• 关键词: Global; patterns; processes; organismal; niche

The WHY of the WHERE and WHEN species are distributed on Earth is a central question in ecology. While multiple factors such as available habitat and evolutionary origin are considered to drive species distributions in our oceans, environment is considered a primary force. Environment not only regulates the occurrence of animals in habitats/at latitudes, but it also drives species interactions that structure food webs from micro- to macro-scales. The interaction of a species with abiotic (environment = habitat) and biotic (prey = diet) factors is termed the niche. In an era of rapid climatic shift - the Anthropocene - understanding how environmental variation moulds the niche of species will help to predict its effects on the stability and resilience of global food webs. While spatial distribution patterns of species are well known, such as increasing species biodiversity from high to low latitudes (the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient; LDG), the underlying causes of these patterns have received little attention in our oceans. The Latitudinal Niche Breadth Hypothesis (LNB), a famous theory proposed to account for LDG, states that smaller niches and greater species diversity will occur at the equator as compared to the poles because of increased environmental stability. I will examine the influence of environmental context on species niche at the poles, equator and along the polar-equatorial latitudinal gradient through testing the LNB hypothesis in our oceans. I will do this through: i) Establishing the relationship between niche size of species from known feeding groups (Trophic Levels; TL) at latitudinal extremes (pole and equator); ii) Testing causal links between established patterns of niche size and environmental variation at the pole and equator; iii) Adopting a macroecological approach to examine niche size patterns and environmental causal links across a continuous polar-to-equator latitudinal gradient; and iv) Testing if the trends fit expectations of the LNB hypotheses in the marine environment. My aim is to advance understanding of the impact of ongoing climate shifts on global ecosystems for sustainable resource management.

物种为什么在地球上分布在哪里，何时分布，这是生态学的一个中心问题。虽然可用栖息地和进化起源等多种因素被认为是推动海洋物种分布的因素，但环境被认为是主要的驱动力。环境不仅控制动物在栖息地/纬度的发生，而且还驱动物种之间的相互作用，从微观到宏观构建食物网。物种与非生物(环境=栖息地)和生物(猎物=饮食)因素的相互作用称为生态位。在气候快速变化的时代--人类世--了解环境变化如何塑造物种的生态位，将有助于预测环境变化对全球食物网的稳定性和弹性的影响。虽然物种的空间分布模式是众所周知的，例如从高纬度到低纬度的物种生物多样性增加(纬度多样性梯度；LDG)，但这些模式的根本原因在我们的海洋中很少受到关注。纬度生态位宽度假说(LNB)是为解释LDG而提出的著名理论，该假说指出，与两极相比，赤道将出现更小的生态位和更大的物种多样性，因为环境稳定性增加。我将通过检验海洋中的LNB假说，研究环境背景对极地、赤道和沿极赤道纬度梯度的物种生态位的影响。我将通过：i)建立已知摄食组(营养级；TL)在纬度极端(极地和赤道)物种的生态位大小之间的关系；ii)测试已建立的生态位大小模式与极地和赤道环境变化之间的因果联系；iii)采用宏观生态方法来检查从极地到赤道的连续纬度梯度上的生态位大小模式和环境因果联系；以及iv)测试趋势是否符合海洋环境中LNB假设的预期。我的目的是增进对持续气候变化对全球生态系统的影响的理解，以促进可持续资源管理。