Mapping long-term patterns of marine biodiversity and complexity through biomolecular analysis of archaeological archives

在生物多样性不断减少的世界里，维持和恢复健康的海洋生态系统是沿海社区、资源管理者和政府的关键优先事项。在实现这些目标的过程中，生态学家越来越认识到长期生物和历史记录的价值，以便为现实的生态基线提供信息，并制定有效的目标参考点。然而，系统的科学观察和定量的历史记录很少超过几十年或几个世纪。相比之下，从考古遗址发现的脊椎动物遗骸和土壤为记录过去数千年来的海洋生物多样性和复杂性提供了丰富的资源，并将覆盖范围扩大到历史上没有资料来源的地区和分类群。结合最先进的生物分子技术，这些生物档案可以提供前所未有的洞察力，了解海洋类群在时间和空间上的分布、生态和遗传多样性，并帮助量化过去数千年来不同强度的人为影响的影响。我的研究项目将创新的生物分子技术与考古数据相结合，探索过去6000年来与人类开发和资源管理相关的海洋生物多样性和生物复杂性的长期、多标度变化。这项研究计划将建立古代DNA和蛋白质(适应)实验室，以指导和培训HQP使用各种生物分子方法，包括分析考古沉积物和海洋脊椎动物骨骼中的古代DNA和蛋白质。我们将应用这些技术来记录与不列颠哥伦比亚省北海岸从全新世中期到晚期气候稳定和变化相关的海洋生物多样性的变化。我们还将通过对太平洋鲱鱼和须鲸的案例研究来审查工业开发海洋资源的遗产。太平洋鲱鱼和须鲸是自全新世晚期以来经历了生态和分布急剧变化的物种，并继续适应动态的海洋条件以及过度捕捞和栖息地变化造成的海洋生态系统的变化。我们将比较这些分类群的古代和现代基因组，以确定遗传多样性和种群结构的最新变化，并为恢复目标和未来的管理计划提供基线信息。这项拟议的研究直接涉及加拿大海洋战略的主要优先事项，为环境评估和资源管理计划的制定提供信息，这些评估和资源管理计划采用生态系统办法，并有效地确认人类行动对海洋环境的长期累积影响。此外，这项研究的多部门效益将加强学术界、第一民族、资源管理者和政府机构之间的联系。

In a world of eroding biological diversity, maintaining and restoring healthy marine ecosystems are key priorities for coastal communities, resource managers and governments. In achieving these goals, ecologists increasingly recognise the value of long--term biological and historic records to inform realistic ecological baselines and develop effective target reference points. Nevertheless, systematic scientific observations and quantitative historical records rarely stretch beyond a few decades or centuries. In contrast, vertebrate remains and soils recovered from archaeological sites provide a rich resource for documenting past marine biodiversity and complexity over millennia, and expand coverage to regions and taxa for which historical sources are not available. Coupled with state-of-the-art biomolecular techniques, these biological archives can provide unprecedented insight into the distribution, ecology and genetic diversity of marine taxa through time and space and help quantify the impact of anthropogenic influences at varying levels of intensity over the past several thousand years. My research program combines innovative biomolecular techniques with archaeological data to explore long--term, multi--scalar changes in marine biodiversity and biocomplexity associated with human exploitation and resource management over the last 6,000 years. This research program will establish the Ancient DNA and Proteins (ADaPT) laboratory to mentor and train HQP in a variety of biomolecular methods, including the analysis of ancient DNA and proteins entrapped in archaeological sediments and marine vertebrate bones. We will apply these techniques to document changes in marine biodiversity associated with periods of climatic stability and flux on the Northern Coast of British Columbia from the mid- to late-Holocene. We will also examine the legacies of industrial exploitation of marine resources through case studies on Pacific herring and baleen whales: species that have experienced dramatic changes in their ecology and distribution since the Late Holocene and continue to adjust to dynamic oceanic conditions and the alteration of marine ecosystems caused by overfishing and habitat changes. We will compare ancient and modern genomes of these taxa to identify recent changes in genetic diversity and population structure, and develop baseline information for informing recovery targets and future management plans. This proposed research directly addresses key priorities of Canada's Oceans Strategy by feeding into the development of environmental assessments and resource management plans that take an ecosystem approach and which effectively acknowledge the long--term cumulative impacts of human actions on the marine environment. Furthermore, the multi-sectorial benefits of this research will strengthen ties between academics, First Nations, resource managers and government bodies.