Wildlife Restoration Ecology

野生动物恢复生态学

• 批准号: CRC-2021-00049
• 负责人: Ford, Adam
• 金额: $ 7.29万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Canada Research Chairs
• 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=757188
• 关键词: Wildlife; Restoration; Ecology

Across the Earth, human modification of the environment has never been so widespread as it is today. As a result, many populations of Canada's most recognizable wildlife-caribou, elk, deer, wolves, bears-are declining. These declines are occurring because people have altered the types of interactions that occur between species: the links in the food chain are broken. To counter these impacts, wildlife restoration ecology has emerged as a significant new discipline in the life sciences. Restoration also forms the backbone of environmental legislation in Canada. If restoration is to succeed, scientists must develop and translate knowledge of how people affect species interactions and ecological processes.The objective of this Tier II Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Wildlife Restoration Ecology are to address the impact of human activity on the interactions among people, large predators (wolves, bears, cougars), their prey (deer, elk), and plants in human-modified landscapes. The approach of this CRC program features a novel combination of field experiments, GPS tracking, and satellite imagery to bring together the ecology of individuals, populations, and communities. Specifically, the Chair will investigate how natural resource extraction, infrastructure, and human-wildlife conflict not only change species abundance, but the manner in which these species move through the landscape and interact with one another. The Chair is positioned at the forefront of efforts to restore wildlife populations and the people that depend on wildlife for food security and cultural purposes. The implications of this research are significant for Canada's international commitments to conserve biodiversity and to support human-wildlife interactions that often are at the center of reconciliation efforts between national governments and Indigenous communities.

在整个地球上，人类对环境的改变从未像今天这样广泛。因此，加拿大最知名的野生动物--驯鹿、麋鹿、鹿、狼、熊--的数量正在减少。这些下降的发生是因为人类改变了物种之间发生的相互作用的类型：食物链中的链接被打断。为了应对这些影响，野生动物恢复生态学已经成为生命科学中一门重要的新学科。恢复也构成了加拿大环境立法的支柱。如果恢复要成功，科学家必须开发和转化关于人类如何影响物种相互作用和生态过程的知识。野生动物恢复生态学的这个加拿大二级研究教席(CRC)的目标是研究人类活动对人、大型捕食者(狼、熊、美洲狮)、猎物(鹿、麋鹿)和人类改造景观中的植物之间相互作用的影响。这种CRC计划的方法以野外实验、GPS跟踪和卫星图像的新颖组合为特色，将个人、种群和社区的生态结合在一起。具体地说，主席将调查自然资源开采、基础设施和人类与野生动物的冲突不仅改变了物种的丰富度，而且改变了这些物种在景观中移动和相互作用的方式。主席站在恢复野生动物种群和为粮食安全和文化目的而依赖野生动物的人民的努力的前列。这项研究对加拿大保护生物多样性和支持人与野生动物互动的国际承诺具有重要意义，这些互动往往是各国政府和土著社区和解努力的核心。