GRK 2272: R3 - Responses to biotic and abiotic Changes, Resilience and Reversibility of Lake Ecosystems

淡水生态系统受到多种人为应激源的严重压力。欧洲环境立法的一个核心假设是，退化的生态系统在摆脱人为压力后恢复到“自然状态”。不幸的是，我们仍然缺乏对生态系统对不断变化的条件的反应的足够了解，以预测恢复措施是否真的导致湖泊生态系统过去的变化发生逆转。拟议的研究培训小组(RTG)旨在利用世界上研究最多的湖泊之一康斯坦茨湖作为模型系统来提高这种理解。康斯坦茨湖非常适合研究响应模式，包括可逆性，因为该湖受到了多种环境应激源(如富营养化、气候变化、新生物群)的影响，而且富营养化--1960年代至1980年代主要关注的应激源--已被成功消除。这些变化对湖泊生态系统的影响已经被记录在独特的长期数据集中。我们将结合经典和新颖的方法，即种群基因组学和元基因组学方法、代谢谱、化合物特异性稳定同位素分析、比较多物种实验、古湖泊和复活生态学方法、时间序列分析和数值模拟模型，研究群落结构、生物相互作用以及碳和养分流动对变化的响应。重点将放在响应模式上，包括在混乱的环境变化(变化的基线)存在时生态系统的弹性或可逆性。结构化的博士资格课程包括指导计划、关于湖泊学研究和应用问题的具体讲座、学生研讨会和访问计划、在研究项目中教授硕士学生、灵活的一周课程、可转移的技能课程、客座研究人员的访问和年度务虚会。这一资格认证计划的目标是通过提供对一大套古典和现代生态学和进化方法和研究方法的访问和理解，支持博士研究人员进行优秀的研究，促进大学合作和跨学科研究，提供教学经验，并改善学术界和外部博士研究人员的工作前景。

Freshwater ecosystems are under severe pressure by a multitude of anthropogenic stressors. A central assumption of the European environmental legislation is that degraded ecosystems return to their 'natural state' after relief from anthropogenic pressures. Unfortunately, we still lack sufficient understanding of the responses of ecosystems to changing conditions to predict whether restoration measures indeed result in the reversal of past changes in lake ecosystems. The proposed research training group (RTG) aims to improve such understanding using Lake Constance, one of the best-studied lakes in the world, as a model system. Lake Constance is perfectly suited for studying response patterns, including reversibility, as the lake has been affected by a multitude of environmental stressors (e.g. eutrophication, climate change, neobiota), and because eutrophication, the stressor of main concern during the 1960s to 1980s, has been removed successfully. The effects of these changes on the lake ecosystem have been documented in unique long-term data sets.Combining classical and novel methods, i.e. population genomics and metagenomics approaches, metabolic profiling, compound-specific stable-isotope analyses, comparative multi-species experiments, paleo-limnological and resurrection ecology approaches, time-series analyses, and numerical simulation models, we will investigate the response of community structure, biological interactions and carbon and nutrient flows to changing conditions. The focus will be on the response patterns including resilience or reversibility of the ecosystem in the presence of confounding environmental changes (changing baselines).The structured doctoral qualification programmme combines a mentoring program, specific lectures on research and applied questions in limnology, a seminar and visiting program among students, teaching of Master students in research projects, flexible one-week courses, transferable skills courses, visits by guest researchers, and annual retreats. The goals of this qualification program are to support doctoral researchers in conducting excellent research by providing access and understanding of a large suite of classical and modern ecological and evolutionary methods and research approaches, to foster collegial cooperation and interdisciplinary research, to enable teaching experiences and to improve the job perspectives of the doctoral researchers in and outside academia.