The impact of environmental change on freshwater communities

加拿大拥有数以百万计的湖泊和数千条河流。持续不断的全球气候变化可能会影响所有淡水生态系统，包括最偏远地区的淡水生态系统。我的研究计划的目标是调查生态社区如何应对环境变化。这笔赠款将培训高素质的人员，并为探索社区是否以及如何应对与全球变化相关的快速环境变化的研究提供资金。我们将结合实验和理论方法，研究生态和进化过程如何共同作用，在生态群落层面上形成反应。我的研究计划的最终目标是建立一个预测框架，根据日益增加的人为影响评估社区和生态系统的抵抗力和复原力。 人类依赖于提供食物和健康环境的功能强大和可预测的生态系统。人类引起的全球变化是一个主要问题，因为它产生了多种变化条件，可能影响陆地和水生态系统的稳定性和可持续性。气温上升可能是最突出的影响，但与淡水环境相关的“鸡尾酒变化”包括许多因素，要么与化石燃料燃烧(二氧化碳、温度、有机物增加)有关，要么与土地利用做法的变化(磷和氮负荷增加)有关。拟议的研究计划从两个新的、调查不足的角度探讨了气温上升对水生群落的影响：通过丧失动力稳定性而导致的灭绝风险和湖泊冰。此外，我们将解决缺乏关于复杂社区如何应对同时变化的环境因素组合的知识的问题。拟议的研究计划将调查物种组合对多维环境变化的反应。 世界各地和加拿大的资源经理和环保从业者正在努力对他们的系统将如何应对环境变化做出合理的预测。典型的方法是单独考虑具有经济和文化价值的物种，并评估它们的直接生理敏感性。然而，物种在其生态系统范围内对变化作出反应，支持单个资源物种的生态系统的稳定性对于任何有效的养护和管理努力都是至关重要的。拟议的研究将促进对环境变化背景下生态系统稳定性和变化的理解。

Canada is home to millions of lakes and thousands of rivers. Ongoing global climate change potentially impacts all freshwater ecosystems, including those in the remotest locations. The objective of my research program is to investigate how ecological communities respond to environmental change. This grant will train highly qualified personnel and fund research that explores if and how communities can cope with the rapid environmental change associated with global change. We will combine experimental and theoretical approaches to study how ecological and evolutionary processes act together to form a response at the level of ecological communities. The ultimate goal of my research program is to contribute to a predictive framework that evaluates the resistance and resilience of communities and ecosystems in the light of increasing anthropogenic impact. Humans depend on functional and predictable ecosystems that provide food and a healthy environment. Human-induced global change is a major concern because it generates multiple changing conditions that likely affect the stability and sustainability of ecosystems on land and in water. Rising temperature is probably the most prominent effect but the “cocktail of changes” relevant for freshwater environments includes a number of factors either associated with fossil fuel burning (increasing CO2, temperature, organic matter) or changes in land use practices (increased load of phosphorus and nitrogen). The proposed research program explores the impact of rising temperature on aquatic communities from two novel, under-investigated angles: extinction risk through loss of dynamical stability and lake ice. In addition, we will address the lack of knowledge about how complex communities respond to a combination of environmental factors that change simultaneously. The proposed research program will investigate the response of assemblages of species to multi-dimensional environmental change. Resource managers and conservation practitioners around the world and in Canada are grappling to make sound predictions about how their systems will respond to environmental change. The typical approach has been to consider species of economic and cultural value individually, and assess their direct physiological sensitivity. However, species respond to change within the context of their ecosystems, and the stability of ecosystems that support individual resource species is critical for any effective conservation and management efforts. The proposed research will advance an understanding of ecosystem stability and change in the context of a changing environment.