Exploring Long-Term Variation in Arctic Marine Ecosystems through Stable Isotope Analysis and Fatty Acid Biomarkers

通过稳定同位素分析和脂肪酸生物标志物探索北极海洋生态系统的长期变化

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-04740
• 负责人: Szpak, Paul
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: Trent University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=716927
• 关键词: Exploring; Long; Term; Variation; Arctic

The Arctic is changing rapidly and there is growing concern about how these changes may impact various species that are endemic to this region and are of tremendous economic and cultural importance to the indigenous peoples of the north. Long-term studies of the impacts of climate change on marine mammals are typically limited to a few years or at most a few decades, but we know that the environmental conditions in the Arctic have varied substantially through the Holocene and particularly in the last few hundred years. This research program will reconstruct long-term variation in the ecology of Arctic marine mammals (polar bear, ringed seal, walrus, bowhead whale, narwhal, beluga whale) from Baffin Bay and East Greenland over the last 12,000 years by analysing the bulk and compound-specific stable isotope compositions (13C and 15N) of the proteinaceous component of bone samples (collagen) from natural history collections (materials collected from palaeontological and archaeological sites as well as tissue samples archived by museums). These data will provide insight into variation in the trophic position of these animals and the relative importance of sea ice algae supporting marine food webs. Unlike most palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, these data will shed light on how organisms at or near the top of the food web have responded to long-term environmental variation, a perspective that cannot be accessed except through these unique natural history collections. We cannot adequately address how climate change influences these species today if we lack a long-term perspective. This research program also seeks to develop new biomolecular techniques for studying ancient bones. Past ancient biomolecular research has focused on proteins (isotopic analysis, radiocarbon dating, palaeoproteiomics) and nucleic acids (ancient DNA) and this program seeks to explore the use of lipids extracted from ancient bones as markers of ecological variation. Fatty acid biomarkers from adipose and other soft tissues provide valuable insights into the ecology of modern animal populations and this program will explore the feasibility of applying similar techniques to the lipids preserved within the ultrastructure of dense, cortical bone.

北极正在迅速变化，人们越来越担心这些变化可能会影响该地区特有的各种物种，这些物种对北方土著人民具有巨大的经济和文化重要性。关于气候变化对海洋哺乳动物影响的长期研究通常仅限于几年或最多几十年，但我们知道，北极的环境条件在整个全新世，特别是在过去几百年中发生了巨大变化。这项研究计划将重建北极海洋哺乳动物生态的长期变化（北极熊，环斑海豹，海象，弓头鲸，独角鲸，白鲸）从巴芬湾和东格陵兰岛在过去的12，通过分析整体和化合物特定的稳定同位素组成，（13 C和15 N）的蛋白质成分的骨骼样品（胶原蛋白）从自然历史收藏（材料收集从古生物和考古遗址以及组织样本存档的博物馆）。这些数据将提供洞察这些动物的营养地位的变化和海冰藻类支持海洋食物网的相对重要性。与大多数古环境重建不同的是，这些数据将揭示处于或接近食物网顶端的生物如何对长期环境变化做出反应，这一观点只能通过这些独特的自然历史藏品才能获得。如果我们缺乏长远的眼光，就无法充分解决气候变化如何影响这些物种的问题。 这项研究计划还寻求开发新的生物分子技术来研究古代骨骼。过去的古代生物分子研究主要集中在蛋白质（同位素分析，放射性碳测年，古蛋白质组学）和核酸（古代DNA），该计划旨在探索使用从古代骨骼中提取的脂质作为生态变化的标志。来自脂肪和其他软组织的脂肪酸生物标志物为现代动物种群的生态学提供了有价值的见解，该计划将探索将类似技术应用于致密皮质骨超微结构中保存的脂质的可行性。