Functional diversity in extreme marine environments

人们越来越担心人类对深海的影响，深海是世界上最大、最不为人所知的生态系统的所在地。该方案将在两个生态系统中开发和应用功能生态学方法，以评估对人类活动和全球变化的反应。功能多样性是比较不同生境和地区群落的有用工具。构造扩张脊上的热液喷口特有的动物适应极端的栖息地条件。一家加拿大公司计划于2017年开始在南太平洋进行深海采矿，目标是富含金属的烟囱矿藏，这些矿藏构成了长寿遗址的大部分栖息地。我的工作积累了数十年关于热液喷口多样性和动物特征的数据，特别是在加拿大海岸。我们的工作将开发功能特征方法，以比较胡安德富卡/探险者山脊沿线喷口地点基于丰度的多样性指数。通过在汤加附近的喷口地点(一个是采矿前景)资助的巡航，我们将使用改进的方法来检查高质量和低质量的地雷目标之间的功能多样性。第三个实地地点位于另一个生物地理区域(马里亚纳州)，在那里，同样的技术将支持泛太平洋功能多样性比较。对关键物种的研究，特别是对寄生共生体的大型动物的研究，将扩展已知的功能特征，并促进地区间的比较。我们与其他研究人员合作收集数据和测试分析；这将是第一个使用开放访问特征数据库对热通风系统进行全面功能评估的公司。

There is growing concern over anthropogenic impacts on the deep ocean, home of the world’s largest and most poorly known ecosystems. This programme will develop and apply functional ecology approaches in two ecosystems to assess responses to human activities and global changes. Functional diversity is a useful tool for comparing communities in different habitats and regions. The animals endemic to hydrothermal vents on tectonic spreading ridges are adapted to extreme habitat conditions. A Canadian company plans to start deep-sea mining in 2017 in the South Pacific targeting the metal-rich chimney deposits that form much of the habitat at long-lived sites. My work has amassed decades of data on hydrothermal vent diversity and animal characteristics, especially off the Canadian coast. Our work will develop functional trait approaches to compare abundance-based diversity indices at vent sites along the Juan de Fuca/Explorer Ridges. With funded cruises at vent sites off Tonga (one a mining prospect), we will use the refined methods to examine functional diversity between high versus low “quality” mine targets. A third field site lies in another biogeographic region (Mariana) where the same techniques will support a pan-Pacific functional diversity comparison. Studies on key species, particularly the large animals that host symbionts, will extend known functional traits and facilitate inter-region comparisons. We collaborate with other researchers to amass data and test analyses; it will be the first to make a full functional assessment of the hot vent system with an open access trait database.