Connecting individual level processes to ecosystem management and restoration efforts

将个体层面的流程与生态系统管理和恢复工作联系起来

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-03162
• 负责人: Rennie, Michael
• 金额: $ 2.91万
• 依托单位: Lakehead University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=745864
• 关键词: Connecting; individual; level; processes; ecosystem

To support ecosystem restoration and sustainable management efforts, links between individual responses to disturbance with community structure and pathways and/or rates of energy flow in aquatic ecosystems must be better understood. Over a century of industrial activity without considering environmental impacts has led to widespread and often negative changes in aquatic ecosystems. The introduction of environmental regulations by governments to limit industrial emissions has allowed some recovery, but biological recovery is rarely achieved, typically lagging well behind chemical recovery. Impacts of contaminants are mostly documented at the organismal level (e.g., growth, behaviour, cellular and metabolic responses), but management efforts in impacted and recovering ecosystems are applied at the population and ecosystem level. This mismatch between impact assessment and management highlights the need to connect individual-level responses to the ecosystem level at which management actions are applied. Further, ecosystem coupling (e.g., via fish or resource movement) and its contribution to ecosystem resilience have framed a conceptual model of adaptive capacity in the Laurentian Great Lakes, which also highlights drivers of offshore fish production as a major knowledge gap. Metabolic changes at the individual level (e.g., activity and resting metabolism) are predicted to have demographic consequences, resulting in population- and ecosystem-level changes via consumer abundance and prey consumption. This in turn may alter the community composition of ecosystems, which can alter food chain length, energy transfer efficiency and contaminant accumulation in aquatic food webs. During the next 5 years, Dr. Rennie will lead a research group to quantify relationships between individual-level metabolic changes to population- and ecosystem-level processes, using complimentary approaches in both whole ecosystem assessments and manipulative whole-lake experiments. Building on ongoing research and initiating new lines of investigation, relationships between trophic energy transfer and individual metabolic costs will be evaluated in two whole-lake experiments; one examining the impacts of microplastic additions, anticipated to alter energy transfer through fish metabolic rates and changes in community structure, and another food web manipulation/ecosystem restoration experiment where freshwater shrimp (Mysis diluviana) are being re-established after a 40+ year absence. Mechanistic hypotheses of the role of ecosystem subsidization (via movement of fish and/or resources) on offshore freshwater reef productivity will be evaluated using hydroacoustic, stable isotope and remotely operated vehicle technologies. This innovative research will advance the fields of ecology, evolution and aquatic science, providing critical tools for policy makers and resource managers tasked with restoring and monitoring aquatic ecosystems in the face of global environmental change.

为了支持生态系统恢复和可持续管理工作，必须更好地了解个体对干扰的反应与水生生态系统中的群落结构和能量流动的途径和/或速率之间的联系。世纪以来，不考虑环境影响的工业活动导致了水生生态系统的广泛和往往是负面的变化。各国政府为限制工业排放而实行的环境法规允许了一些回收，但生物回收很少实现，通常远远落后于化学回收。污染物的影响主要在生物体水平上记录（例如，生长、行为、细胞和代谢反应），但在受影响和正在恢复的生态系统中，管理工作是在种群和生态系统一级进行的。影响评估与管理之间的这种不匹配突出表明，需要将个人层面的应对措施与采取管理行动的生态系统层面联系起来。此外，生态系统耦合（例如，通过鱼类或资源移动）及其对生态系统复原力的贡献构建了劳伦特五大湖适应能力的概念模型，该模型还强调了近海鱼类生产的驱动因素是一个主要的知识差距。个体水平的代谢变化（例如，活动和静止代谢）预计会产生人口后果，通过消费者丰度和猎物消费导致人口和生态系统一级的变化。这反过来又可能改变生态系统的群落组成，从而改变水生食物网中的食物链长度、能量转移效率和污染物积累。在接下来的5年里，Rennie博士将领导一个研究小组，量化个人水平的代谢变化与人口和生态系统水平的过程之间的关系，在整个生态系统评估和操纵性全湖实验中使用互补方法。将在两个全湖试验中，以正在进行的研究为基础，开展新的调查，评价营养能转移与个人代谢成本之间的关系;一项研究考察了微塑料添加物的影响，预计将通过鱼类代谢率和群落结构的变化改变能量转移，另一个食物网操纵/生态系统恢复实验，淡水虾（Mysis duluviana）在消失40多年后重新建立。生态系统补贴（通过鱼类和/或资源的移动）对近海淡水珊瑚礁生产力的作用的机制假设将利用水声、稳定同位素和遥控潜水器技术进行评价。这项创新研究将推动生态学，进化和水生科学领域的发展，为政策制定者和资源管理者提供关键工具，负责在全球环境变化中恢复和监测水生生态系统。