DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Historical Changes in Food Web Structure of Large Rivers

大河对区域经济和全球生态系统都很重要。大坝建设可能是河流生态系统和水文最明显的人为改变者，不仅改变了自然环境，也改变了流域内的生物多样性。运转良好的食物网是维持河流的基础。了解河流食物网对野生动物保护、环境保护和洪泛平原管理的规划至关重要。该项目的结果将作为食物网历史分析和河流工程长期影响的模型。在过去的一百年里，河流工程是如何改变密西西比河和俄亥俄河的食物网结构的？记录水生生态系统的长期变化是出了名的困难。在这个提议中，我们将使用一种创新的，新的，化学分析技术对过去一个世纪收集的博物馆鱼类标本的组织进行分析，从而提供比以往任何时候都更准确和精确的食物网测量。由此，我们将确定随着时间的推移，在密西西比河和俄亥俄河的河流工程中，食物网发生了哪些变化和可能的变化。

Large rivers are important for regional economies and global ecosystems. Dam construction is perhaps the most obvious human modifier of riverine ecosystems and hydrology, altering not only the physical environment but also biodiversity within the watershed. Well-functioning foodwebs are fundamental for sustaining rivers. Understanding riverine foodwebs is essential in planning for wildlife conservation, environmental protection, and floodplain management. Results of this project will serve as a model of historical analyses of foodwebs and the long-term implications of river engineering. How has river engineering over the past hundred years altered food web structure in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers? Documenting long-term changes in aquatic ecosystems is notoriously difficult. In this proposal, we will use an innovative, new, chemical analysis technique on the tissues of museum fish specimens collected over the last century, thereby providing a more accurate and precise measurement of food webs than ever before possible. From this, we will determine what changes over time and possible shifts in food webs have occurred in response to river engineering in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.