CAREER: Development of GIS applications for the study of aquatic biodiversity: Assessing environmental factors regulating fish assemblages across multiple scales

北美洲拥有地球上任何温带地区最丰富的水生物种。 不幸的是，北美的水生生态系统正在经历土地利用变化和气候变化对人类造成的持续影响。 毫不奇怪，水生物种是北美最受威胁的类群之一。 地理信息系统（GIS）以空间上明确的方式促进生物和环境数据的组织、操作和分析。 地理信息系统技术在水生系统中的发展和应用为评估环境变化对水生生物分布的影响提供了一个急需的框架。 本研究的目标是开发基于GIS的研究工具，调查气候和景观特征调节水生生物多样性在大陆，区域和地方地理尺度。 在大陆范围内，将利用地理信息系统环境数据，包括降水、温度和土地覆盖物，查明调节所有北美鱼类物种分布和多样性的因素。 在区域范围内，气候数据将与水文模型相结合，以评估水文变化对伊利诺伊州和亚拉巴马州鱼类种群的影响。 在地方一级，将开发精细的地理信息系统数据，以研究一年内生境变化与鱼类丰度之间的关系。这项工作的更广泛影响将通过生成数据和技术来实现，这些数据和技术有助于了解气候变异性和土地使用特征对水生系统物种多样性和丰富度的影响。 此外，还将举办年度讲习班，为来自大学、政府机构和非营利组织的水产科学家提供基于地理信息系统的培训。 这些讲习班的主要目标包括加强基于地理信息系统的水生生物多样性研究的技术和知识基础设施，并建立一个侧重于地理信息系统在水生科学中的应用的互动科学家群体。

North America contains the highest diversity of aquatic species of any temperate region on Earth. Unfortunately, aquatic ecosystems in North America are experiencing ongoing human-induced impacts from land use transformations and climate change. Not surprisingly, aquatic species are some of the most threatened taxa in North America. Geographic information systems (GIS) facilitate the organization, manipulation, and analysis of biological and environmental data in a spatially explicit manner. The development and application of GIS techniques in aquatic systems offers a much needed framework to assess the impact of environmental variability on the distribution of aquatic organisms. The goal of this research is to develop GIS-based research tools to investigate the climatic and landscape characteristics regulating aquatic biodiversity at continental, regional, and local geographic scales. At the continental scale, GIS environmental data, including precipitation, temperature, and landcover, will be used to identify the factors regulating the distributions and diversity of all North American fish species. At the regional scale, climate data will be integrated with a hydrologic model to assess the influence of hydrologic variability on fish assemblages in Illinois and Alabama. At the local scale, fine-scale GIS data will be developed to examine the relationship between intra-annual habitat variability and fish abundance. The broader impacts of this work will be realized through the generation of data and techniques that facilitate an understanding of the impacts of climate variability and land use characteristics on the diversity and abundance of species in aquatic systems. In addition, annual workshops will be developed that provide GIS-based training to aquatic scientists from universities, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The primary goals of these workshops include the enhancement of the technical and intellectual infrastructure for GIS-based studies of aquatic biodiversity, and the generation of a community of interactive scientists focused on GIS applications in aquatic sciences.