Changing species interactions along environmental gradients

当今生态学领域面临的最大挑战之一是将生理学和基础生态学的进步联系起来，以改善对气候变化的生态响应的预测。一个特别复杂和普遍的问题是我们如何理解物种之间的相互作用-例如竞争和捕食-作为环境的函数而变化。在本提案中，我计划采取两级方法来应对这一挑战，重点是竞争。首先，使用实验微观世界，我的研究小组将测试理论预测如何剥削竞争的变化作为一个函数的温度升高和水中二氧化碳的变化。我们将基于代谢缩放理论进行预测，并使用对照实验来确定代谢缩放率和其他性状对竞争结果的作用。我们还将通过评估不同环境中物种对之间的竞争结果来测试我们的预测能力。这项工作将在生态学领域产生重大影响，将引起地理生态学家的浓厚兴趣，以了解物种之间的相互作用如何在物种范围内发生变化，并将引起研究人员和管理人员的广泛兴趣，这些研究人员和管理人员在竞争结果随气候变化的系统中工作。第二，我们将使用生态综合应用这些结果在更广泛的分类和空间尺度。我们将整理和综合已发表的研究，其中发现物种与剥削性竞争相关的生理特征随温度的变化而变化，以揭示这些反应的普遍性。我们还将汇集作为温度和CO2的函数的物种优势变化的区域研究，并建立一个物种特征数据库，以测试基于特征的框架，以了解未来海洋气候中物种优势的变化。这项工作将把我们工作的影响扩大到全球范围。*该计划旨在直接解决我们对环境变化的生物反应能力的关键缺陷，并推动生态学领域对环境在物种相互作用中的作用有更深入的机械理解。我们专注于气候变化-并计划与加拿大管理人员，政策制定者和非政府组织合作-以扩大这些结果对加拿大气候变化适应战略的影响。这项工作将改变我们对社区互动和气候变化的看法，并标志着加拿大在制定基于生态的气候变化应对预测方面处于领先地位。

One of the greatest challenges facing the field of ecology today is to connect advances in physiology and fundamental ecology, towards improving predictions about ecological responses to climate change. One particularly complex and pervasive issue is our understanding of how interactions between species - such as competition and predation - change as a function of the environment. In this proposal, I plan to take a two-tiered approach to addressing this challenge, focusing on competition.******First, using experimental microcosms, my research group will test theoretical predictions about how exploitative competition changes as a function of increased temperature and changes in aquatic CO2. We will base our predictions on metabolic scaling theory, and use controlled experiments to ascertain the role of metabolic scaling rate and other traits, upon outcomes of competition. We will also test our predictive power by assessing competitive outcomes between pairs of species in different environments. This work will be highly impactful in the field of ecology, will be of keen interest to geographic ecologists working to understand how species interactions change across a species' range, and will be of wide general interest to researchers and managers working in systems where competitive outcomes are changing with climate.******Second, we will use ecological synthesis to apply these results at a wider taxonomic and spatial scale. We will collate and synthesize published studies in which species' physiological traits associated with exploitative competition have been found to change as a function of temperature, to uncover the generality of these responses. We will also bring together regional studies of changes in species dominance as a function of temperature and CO2, and build a database of species traits with which to test a trait-based framework for understanding changes in species dominance in future ocean climates. This work will extend the impacts of our work to the global scale.******This program is designed to directly address critical shortcomings in our ability to project biotic responses to environmental change, and pushes the field of ecology towards a deeper mechanistic understanding of the role of the environment upon species interactions. We focus on climate change - and plan to engage with Canadian managers, policy-makers, and NGOs - in order to magnify the impacts of these results towards climate change adaptation strategies in Canada. This work will transform how we think about community interactions and climate change, and mark Canada as a leader in developing ecologically-grounded projections of climate change responses.