Developing new approaches to track environmental change using lake sediment archives.

我的研究和HQP培训旨在回答需要对人为干扰和环境扰动对生态系统的影响进行长期展望的问题。这种长期观点是必要的，因为大多数环境研究都受到短期尺度的限制，无法充分估计自然变异。我的大部分研究和HQP培训都集中在湖泊沉积物岩心上，作为重建长期环境变化的档案。在这里，我建议继续推进这一领域的发展，重建湖泊沉积物中的环境变化的新方法。具体来说，我建议开发和应用新的工具来证明如何水生环境已被变暖的北方气候和迁徙动物改变，并研究如何在整个全新世在湖泊沉积物core.Recent分析进展，在我的实验室已经开发出有针对性的分析方法，用于分析源特定的标记，研究外来物质的变化，以显示，例如，麦肯齐野牛保护区的湖泊扩张是近几个世纪以来前所未有的。我最近通过开发“非靶向生物标志物发现”来增强这项工作，以确定来自不同生态区（如北方和苔原湖）的沉积物中新的持久性有机标志物，以展示加拿大的生态系统在近几个世纪和几千年来的变化。这种新方法提供了独特的HQP培训机会，在分子标记发现，传统上用于其他学科，并独特地将其应用到沉积物研究。具体来说，我建议确定和应用下一代的沉积物标记，以确定，例如，如何树线在过去的几个世纪中已经转移，以应对气候变化的放射性测年湖泊沉积物core.Another方法，我建议检查是开发标记保存在湖泊沉积物芯重建输入从迁徙动物和早期人类住区研究这些人口的自然变异。最近，我的实验室已经提前使用粪便甾醇和甾烷醇重建营养湖泊沉积物从海鸟，提高粪便输入湖泊甾醇指纹来源的潜力。使用多代理的方法，我建议收集沉积物芯邻近海鸟殖民地和人类住区，努力确定的到来和长期稳定的人口通过跟踪源特定的标志物湖泊沉积物芯，并利用这些信息来解决关键问题与保护生物学，生态系统动态，自然与人为的生态系统变化的驱动因素。

My research and HQP training aims to answer questions requiring a long-term perspective on the effects of anthropogenic disturbances and environmental perturbations on ecosystems. This long-term perspective is needed because most environmental studies are limited by short time scales that do not permit sufficient estimations of natural variability. I focus much of my research and HQP training on lake sediment cores as archives for reconstructing long term environmental change. Here I propose to continue to advance this field by developing new approaches for reconstructing environmental change in lake sediments. Specifically, I propose to develop and apply new tools to demonstrate how aquatic environments have been altered by warming northern climates and migratory animals, and examine how these processes may be reconstructed throughout the Holocene in lake sediment cores.Recent analytical advances in my laboratory have developed targeted analytical methods for analyzing source-specific markers to study changes in allochthonous matter to lakes to show, for example, that lake expansion in the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary is unprecedented in recent centuries. I have recently augmented this work by developing “non-targeted biomarker discovery” to identify new persistent organic markers in sediments from different ecozones (such as Boreal and Tundra lakes) in an effort to show how Canada's ecosystems have changed in recent centuries and millennia. This new approach provides unique HQP training opportunities in molecular marker discovery that is traditionally used in other disciplines, and uniquely applying them to sediment studies. Specifically, I propose to identify and apply the next generation of sediment markers to determine, for example, how tree line has shifted in previous centuries in response to changing climate in radiometrically dated lake sediment cores.Another methodology I propose to examine is to develop markers preserved in lake sediment cores to reconstruct inputs from migratory animals and early human settlements to study the natural variability of these populations. Recently, my lab has advanced the use of fecal sterols and stanols to reconstruct nutrients to lake sediments from seabirds, raising the potential for sterol fingerprinting sources of fecal inputs to lakes. Using a multi-proxy approach, I propose to collect sediment cores adjacent to seabird colonies and human settlements in an effort to determine the arrival and long-term stability of populations by tracking source-specific markers to lake sediment cores, and to use this information to address key issues linked to conservation biology, ecosystem dynamics, and natural versus anthropogenic drivers of ecosystem change.