Comparing community size patterns and food web structure in eutrophic temperate and sub-tropical freshwater systems.

不断增加的人类压力正在加速世界各地的环境变化，威胁着人类的水安全和水生生物多样性。一个例子是水生生态系统普遍存在的营养物质污染，这可能导致生物多样性丧失、生态系统过程和功能属性的变化，如次级生产和水质下降。在温带地区，我们对淡水系统的功能属性、它们提供的生态服务以及它们对营养丰富的反应的了解相对较高，但在热带/亚热带系统中，我们对数据的了解是有限的。我们不知道这两个地区的水生群落反应和潜在的生物过程是相似还是不同。这些都是核心问题，因为了解环境过程如何控制资源的可获得性(在这种情况下是清洁的水)对于负责任地使用这种资源至关重要。我们将启动罗汉普顿大学(RU)和圣卡塔琳娜联邦大学(UFSC)之间的长期合作伙伴关系，以比较温带和亚热带地区的淡水系统，跨越营养物质浓度、群落结构(蓝藻的存在)和时间的梯度。我们将找出这两个不同地区水生群落对富营养化反应的异同，并评估其对水质的影响。首先，我们将共同探索Petrucio拥有的Peri盆地(巴西南部圣卡塔琳娜岛)的详细8年数据集(2007-2014)，并将其与Robertson和Reiss拥有的温带淡水系统数据集进行比较。佩里盆地是一个保护区，用于为弗洛里亚诺波利斯的很大一部分城市供应饮用水。随着一种广泛存在的有毒蓝藻的优势和生物量的增加，它开始显示出富营养化和水质恶化的信号。我们的合作伙伴关系将通过跨空间和跨时间测量组成Peri盆地内淡水群落的有机体群体的个体体型来进一步发展这一数据。个体大小是许多生态群落结构的关键决定因素，也是生态学研究中的一种新的“通用货币”，能够比较群落结构和对系统内和系统间干扰的反应。然后，这些数据将被用来确定更高级别的群落参数，如Peri盆地的身体大小光谱、二次生产量和食物网特性，并确定这些参数如何随着营养浓度的变化而随时间变化，以及这可能如何影响水质。此外，合作者还将通过非正式讨论和研讨会，以及计划在巴西举行的研讨会和实地考察、RU会议和访问英国的淡水研究中心，以及出席英国生态学会年会并发表演讲，交流和发展联合研究想法。

Increasing human pressure is accelerating environmental change throughout the world, threatening water security for humans and aquatic biodiversity. One example is the widespread nutrient pollution of aquatic ecosystems which may result in biodiversity loss, changes in ecosystem processes and functional attributes such as secondary production and declining water quality. In temperate zones our understanding of the functional attributes of freshwater systems, the ecological services that they provide, and their response to nutrient enrichment is relatively advanced but in tropical/ sub-tropical systems data, and therefore understanding, are limited. We do not know whether the aquatic community responses, and the underlying biological processes, of both areas will be similar or different. These are central questions because understanding how environmental processes control resource availability (in this case clean water) is critical for the responsible use of that resource. We will initiate a long term partnership between Roehampton University (RU) and Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) to compare freshwater systems in temperate and sub-tropical areas across a gradient of nutrient concentrations, community structure (presence of cyanobacteria) and over time. We will identify similarities and differences in aquatic community response to eutrophication in these two distinct regions and evaluate the resultant impact on water quality. Initially we will jointly explore a detailed 8 year data set (2007-2014) for the Peri basin (Santa Catarina Island, southern Brazil) held by Petrucio and compare it with datasets for temperate freshwater systems held by Robertson and Reiss. The Peri basin is a protected area and is used for drinking water supply for a significant part of the conurbation of Florianopolis. It is beginning to show signals of eutrophication and water quality degradation with an increasing dominance and biomass of a widespread toxic cyanobacterium. Our partnership will further develop this data by measuring individual body sizes for organismal groups comprising the freshwater communities within the Peri basin across space and time. Body size is a crucial determinant of the structure of many ecological communities and is a new 'common currency' in ecological research enabling comparison of community structure and responses to disturbance within and between systems. This data will then be used to determine higher level community parameters such as body size spectra, secondary production and food web properties for the Peri basin and determine how these vary through time with changing nutrient concentrations and how this may effect water quality. The collaborators will additionally exchange and develop joint research ideas through informal discussions and seminars but also through the planned workshops and field trips in Brazil, RU conference and visits to freshwater research centres in the UK and by attendance and presentations at the British Ecological Society annual meeting.