Insects of Atlantic Islands: testing methods for biodiversity assessment and island colonization hypotheses

越来越多的生物学家被要求提供有关其所在地区生物多样性的信息，回答有关保护、受人类活动威胁的物种、入侵物种以及生态系统如何运作的问题。然而，某些生物群体，如昆虫，物种如此丰富，以至于连最基本的问题都很难回答，比如加拿大几乎任何地区都有多少物种。据估计，加拿大有大约66000种昆虫，但只有一半是已知的。即使在这个国家研究最多的地区，我们对昆虫物种的了解也存在巨大差距。昆虫生物多样性危机的一个实际例子是，当新的入侵物种进入一个国家时，由于缺乏训练有素的分类学家、地区分类指南和适当管理的参考资料集来比较新物种，我们往往在看到损害之前无法判断入侵者的存在。我们建议在本研究中解决缺乏物种数据和缺乏训练有素的专业人员的问题；我们将与区域昆虫收集单位合作，鉴定他们的昆虫种类，我们将从自然和受干扰的栖息地对昆虫物种进行密集采样，我们将培训学生识别昆虫并建立参考馆藏。我们收集的昆虫数据将用于测试关于多样性、分散和殖民化的生态假设，并将为我们了解圣劳伦斯湾的昆虫提供催化剂。此外，我们的工作将用于评估濒危物种和评估引入物种的入侵潜力。

Increasingly, biologists are asked to provide information on the biological diversity (biodiversity) that occurs in their region, to answer questions about conservation, species at risk from human activities, invasive species, and how ecosystems function.  However, certain groups of organisms, such as insects, are so rich in species that it is difficult to answer even the most basic questions, such as how many species exist for almost any region of Canada.  Canada is estimated to have about 66,000 species of insect, yet only half are known.. Even in the most studied regions of the country there are huge gaps in our knowledge of insect species.  One practical example of the crisis in insect biodiversity is the fact that when new invasive species enter the country, we often cannot tell the invader is present until damage is seen, due to the lack of trained taxonomists, regional taxonomic guides, and properly curated reference collections with which to compare the new species.  We propose to address both the lack of species data and the lack of trained professionals in this study; we will work with regional insect collections to identify their collections, we will carry out intensive sampling of insect species from natural and disturbed habitats, and we will train students to identify the insects and to set up reference collections.  The insect data we collect will then be used to test ecological hypotheses about diversity, dispersal and colonization, and will provide a catalyst for our understanding of insects of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  In addition our work will be used to assess species-at-risk and to evaluate the potential for invasiveness of introduced species.