How species interactions influence biodiversity: towards a spatially continuous food web of life

物种间的相互作用对生态群落的功能至关重要，但通常被认为对物种的地理分布和多样性并不重要。然而，由于社区生态学和生物地理学领域之间的根本差异和对比结果，以及相互作用网络空间抽样的主要差距，缺乏对这一假设的有力检验。在这个项目中，我将引入这两个领域的概念和方法来量化物种相互作用的空间后果，以及进化历史和特征在塑造网络架构中的作用。为此，我将：(1)为加拿大鸟类、哺乳动物、两栖动物和爬行动物建立一个食物网；(2)通过整合物种相互作用和分布模型，将这个食物网与地理联系起来，从而对生物和非生物因素如何限制群落组成和物种范围产生新的见解；(3)建立考虑物种和生命食物网的保护规划的新方法和应用。这条从概念到保护优先级的管道将有助于我们预测和防止生物多样性丧失的能力。

Species interactions are critically important to the functioning of ecological communities, but are generally considered to be unimportant to the geographic distribution of species and diversity. However, a robust test of this hypothesis is lacking due in part to fundamental differences and contrasting findings between the fields of community ecology and biogeography, along with major gaps in the spatial sampling of interaction networks. In this project, I will bring concepts and methods from both fields to quantify the spatial consequences of species interactions and the role of evolutionary history and traits in shaping network architecture. I will do this by: (1) building a food web for Canadian birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles, (2) linking this food web to geography by integrating species interactions with distribution models, resulting in new insights into how biotic and abiotic factors limit community composition and species ranges, and (3) establishing new methods and applications of conservation planning that consider both species and the food web of life. This pipeline from concept to conservation priority will facilitate our ability to anticipate and prevent biodiversity loss.