NSF-CGP Fellowship: Ecological Stoichiometry of Pelagic Ecosystems

9602466 Elser该奖项支持亚利桑那州立大学动物系的James Elser博士和京都大学生态研究中心的Jotaro Urabe博士之间的美日合作研究。埃尔瑟博士将在京都大学呆上四个月，以开发生态动力学的新视角--生态化学计量学。生态化学计量学关注的是生态系统中生态相互作用参与者的相对元素组成。这一领域的研究最近以新的方式应用于远洋生态系统中的各种生态现象，例如食物网结构对湖泊N和P有效性的影响，消费者驱动的N：P循环与颗粒态N：P和消费者N：P之间的联系，对动物生长和生产的化学计量限制，海洋和淡水生态系统之间的对比，以及身体元素组成的进化生态学和细胞生物学。重点将放在研究远洋生态系统生态化学计量的技术和概念/理论框架上。这次访问将建立这样一种模式，即研究合作而不是竞争产生协同效益，有助于加速增进理解。这位美国研究人员将他在大规模野外环境方面的知识带到了这次合作中，包括全湖实验和跨越大的地球化学和水动力梯度的模式。此外，这位日本研究人员还在实验室浮游生物培养和生长生理研究领域拥有专业知识。该项目预计将产生适合于解释化学计量过程如何调节世界湖泊生态系统功能的国际可比数据。这些数据将直接应用于国内和国际关注的领域，包括渔业衰退、富营养化、生物多样性丧失和全球气候变化。

9602466 Elser This award supports U.S.-Japan collaborative research between Dr. James Elser of the Department of Zoology at Arizona State University and Dr. Jotaro Urabe of the Center for Ecological Research at Kyoto University. Dr. Elser will be spending four months at Kyoto University in order to develop a new perspective on ecological dynamics, ecological stoichiometry. Ecological stoichiometry focuses on the relative elemental composition of participants in ecological interactions in ecosystems. Research in this area has recently been applied in novel ways to a variety of ecological phenomena in pelagic ecosystems, such as effects of food-web structure on N and P availability in lakes, links between consumer-driven N:P recycling and particulate N:P and consumer N:P, stoichiometric constraints on animal growth and production, contrasts between marine and freshwater ecosystems, and the evolutionary ecology and cell biology of body elemental composition. Focus will be placed on techniques and conceptual/theoretical frameworks for study of the ecological stoichiometry of pelagic ecosystems. The visit will build on the model that research cooperation rather than competition yields synergistic benefits that serve to advance understanding at an accelerated rate. The U.S. researcher brings to this collaboration his knowledge on large-scale field settings, including whole- lake experimentation and patterns across large geochemical and hydrodynamic gradients. This is complemented by expertise in the area of laboratory plankton culture and physiological studies of growth by the Japanese researcher. The project is expected to produce internationally comparable data suitable for interpreting how stoichiometric processes regulate ecosystem function across the world's lakes. This data will have direct application to areas of domestic and international concern including fisheries decline, eutrophication, loss of biodiversity and global climate change.