Climate Change and Northern Ecosystems

从清洁的饮用水到调节我们的气候，再到富含各种动植物的传奇景色--加拿大拥有大自然的恩赐。但是，我们如何才能最好地为子孙后代维护自然的好处，以应对人类造成的气候变化？回答这个问题需要了解有机物质是如何在植被、土壤、海洋和大气中的主要水库之间循环的。作为加拿大研究主席，我和我的研究团队将发现全球最重要的两个有机物质池--北方土壤和淡水--将如何应对气候变化。我们的工作将整合基因组学(例如第三代测序)、分析化学(超高分辨率质谱学)和信息学(例如人工智能)中的最先进工具，以跟踪有机分子和微生物之间的大规模联系，并预测它们未来可能发生的变化。我们将通过对整个流域的实验性操作来了解这些变化背后的过程，并确定它们对水、林业和渔业资源的更广泛影响。这项研究将为环境政策和管理人员提供关于如何最好地保护北方生态系统为人类带来的好处的信息。此外，我们将确定以自然为基础的解决方案的机会，以减缓快速气候变化，并为改进全球气候模型提供信息。

From clean drinking water to regulating our climate to storied vistas rich in diverse plants and animals - Canada is blessed with nature's gifts. But how best do we sustain the benefits of nature for future generations against human-caused climate change? Answering this question requires understanding how organic material is cycled among its major reservoirs in vegetation, soils, oceans, and the atmosphere.As a Canada Research Chair, my research team and I will discover how two of the most important global pools for organic materials - northern soils and freshwaters - will respond to climate change. Our work will integrate state-of-the-art tools in genomics (e.g. third-generation sequencing), analytical chemistry (ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry), and informatics (e.g. artificial intelligence) to track large-scale associations between organic molecules and microorganisms and forecast how they might change into the future. We will understand the processes underlying these changes with experimental manipulations of entire catchments and identify their wider consequences for water, forestry, and fisheries resources.This research will inform environmental policy and management about how best to protect the benefits that northern ecosystems deliver to people. Furthermore, we will identify opportunities for nature-based solutions to mitigate rapid climate change and provide information to improve global climate models.