Aquatic invertebrate ecology and paleoecology in arctic ecosystems

我的研究方法使用一套生物指标(如水生昆虫)来推断湖泊和池塘过去的环境条件。这种方法需要收集水生昆虫幼虫(主要是摇蚊科)的活种群，以确定这个底栖群落中不同类群的生态。对生物摇蚊群落的生态学有了足够的了解，对沉积物岩心中的摇蚊化石标本的分析可以推断水环境的长期变化。这种方法使我们能够估计这些系统中的背景、干扰前条件和自然生态变异性，这对于正确评估生态系统如何应对环境变化以及描述过去生态系统变化的时间、幅度和性质是必要的。该项目将研究加拿大北极地区池塘和湖泊对20世纪气候变暖的长期生态系统响应，重点是水生昆虫群落。

My research approach uses a suite of bioindicators (such as aquatic insects) to infer past environmental conditions in lakes and ponds. This approach requires the collection of living populations of larval aquatic insects (primarily Chironomidae, 'chironomids') to determine the ecology of different taxa in this benthic community. With sufficient knowledge on the ecology of living chironomid communities, the analysis of fossil chironomid specimens from sediment cores can generate inferences of long-term changes in aquatic environments. This approach allows us to estimate background, pre-disturbance conditions and natural ecological variability in these systems, which are necessary for a proper assessment of how ecosystems have responded to environmental changes and describing the timing, magnitude and nature of past ecosystem changes.  This project will examine long-term ecosystem responses to 20th century climate warming in ponds and lakes located in Canada's Arctic, with a focus on aquatic insect communities.