Predicting the impacts of species invasions in aquatic systems

生物入侵是一种破坏性的压力源，在世界各地的淡水和海洋系统中正变得越来越频繁。我的研究计划的长期目标是对决定入侵物种在水环境中的成功和影响的因素有一个预见性的理解。在接下来的五年里，我的实验室将从事三个主要领域的研究。我们将研究：(1)入侵物种造成的群落水平的影响(例如灭绝)如何随环境条件而变化；(2)入侵物种的成功和影响是否可以从其生活史特征中预测；以及(3)入侵物种的影响是否在一系列生境类型和空间尺度上是可预测的。这些调查将结合实验研究和对世界各地有记录的入侵事件的数据进行统计分析。在圣劳伦斯河进行的一系列野外实验将调查决定一个占主导地位的入侵者被另一个取代的因素。在运河围墙上，我们将在多个地点和多个深度清除一块块相互竞争的欧亚贻贝(斑马贻贝和叉尾贻贝)，随后监测重新定居的模式和随后清除的斑块的物种优势随着时间的推移，以及这些模式如何在时间和空间上变化。另一系列实验将在小空间尺度上考察斑马贻贝群体对底栖无脊椎动物多样性的影响。我们还将研究本地和入侵甲壳动物之间的拮抗相互作用(相互捕食)如何在水化学梯度上变化，以揭示一个物种或另一个物种占据主导地位的条件。最后，使用荟萃分析技术，我们将研究双壳类入侵的全球数据集，以确定是否存在可预测的影响模式，这些模式可能与物种的生活史特征、入侵群落的组成和入侵栖息地的物理特征有关。总而言之，这些研究的目的是产生有用的概括和预测模型，而这是目前对水生入侵所缺乏的。

Biological invasions are a disruptive stressor that is becoming increasingly frequent in freshwater and marine systems worldwide. The longterm goal of my research program is to develop a predictive understanding of the factors that determine the success and impact of invasive species in aquatic environments. My lab will pursue three major lines of research over the next five years. We will investigate: (1) how community-level impacts (e.g. extinctions) caused by invasive species vary with environmental conditions; (2) whether the success and impact of an invasive species can be predicted from its life history traits; and (3) whether the impacts of invasive species are predictable across a range of habitat types and spatial scales. These investigations will involve a combination of experimental studies and statistical analyses of data from documented invasions worldwide. A series of field experiments in the St. Lawrence River will investigate the factors that determine the replacement of one dominant invader by another. On canal walls, we will clear patches of competing Eurasian mussels (the zebra mussel and the quagga mussel) at multiple sites and across multiple depths, and subsequently monitor patterns of recolonization and subsequent species dominance of cleared patches over time and how these patterns vary temporally and spatially. Another series of experiments will examine the influence of zebra mussel colonies on the diversity of benthic invertebrates at small spatial scales. We will also investigate how antagonistic interactions (mutual predation) between a native and invasive crustacean vary across water chemistry gradients, so as to reveal the conditions in which one species or the other dominates. Finally, using meta-analytical techniques, we will examine a global dataset of bivalve invasions to determine if there are predictable patterns of impact that can be related to the life history characteristics of a species, the composition of the invaded community, and the physical characteristics of the invaded habitat. Together, these studies aim to produce useful generalizations and predictive models that are currently lacking for aquatic invasions.