Quantifying the effects of groundwater and hydrology on trophic structure in desert riparian ecosystems

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(公法111-5)资助的。水和能源是生命的基本成分，也是人类和其他构成食物网的生物的关键商品。奇怪的是，尽管能量在决定食物网内部运作中的作用已经被彻底探索，但水在食物网生态中大多被忽视。该项目的目标是通过努力了解能源和水的供需平衡如何影响陆地食物网的丰度模式和生物多样性，来填补这一关键的研究空白。这项研究将结合大规模的野外实验、稳定的同位素示踪剂，以及对单个动物的新陈代谢和水分利用的测量。这项研究将在圣佩德罗河附近的森林生态系统中进行，圣佩德罗河是美国沙漠西南部最后几条自由流动的常年河流之一。干旱土地占地球陆地表面的1/3，干旱甚至在中等和潮湿的生物群中也很普遍。因此，该项目的结果应该为保护规划者提供一般性指导，说明与气候变化相关的当地能源和水平衡的变化将如何改变陆地生态系统的生物多样性。这项研究将涉及K-12推广和教育，以加强农村地区学校的科学课程。这将通过研究生和K-12教师之间的新合作以及对圣佩德罗河上的河流流量的网络监测来实现。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Water and energy are essential ingredients of life and key commodities for humans and other living organisms that make up food webs. Curiously, although the role of energy in determining the inner workings of food webs has been thoroughly explored, water has been mostly ignored in food web ecology. The goal of this project is to fill this critical research gap by working to understand how the balance between supply and demand of energy and water affects patterns of abundance and biodiversity in terrestrial food webs. The research will involve a combination of large scale field experiments, stable isotopic tracers, and measurements of the metabolism and water use of individual animals. The research will be conducted in the forest ecosystem neighboring the San Pedro River, one of the last free flowing and perennial rivers in the Desert Southwest (USA). Arid lands occupy 1/3 of the Earth's terrestrial surface and drought is prevalent even in mesic and humid biomes. Thus, results from this project should provide general guidance for conservation planners about how changes in local energy and water balance associated with climate change will alter biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. The research will involve K-12 outreach and education to enhance science curricula in schools in rural areas. This will be accomplished through a novel collaboration between graduate students and K-12 teachers as well as a web-based monitoring of river flows on the San Pedro River.