Structuring of aquatic ecological communities

生态群落被认为要么代表区域物种池的随机子集，要么代表由于生物相互作用(例如竞争、捕食)、非生物因素(物种对特定环境条件的不耐受)和历史因素(例如殖民、进化相关性)等各种相互作用而产生的特定子集。我建议研究鱼类群落，以加深我们对这些不同因素的作用的了解。将对安大略省境内和大陆范围内的湖泊和溪流鱼类群落进行测试，以确定由于它们在进化上的相似性，生物相似性的相对重要性。我将确定非生物环境在过滤特定物种组合方面的作用，因为它们的栖息地要求不同或相似，相对于物种相互作用(例如，竞争)的作用，通过检查基于它们的形态、它们的功能关系(在取食、繁殖、行为方面的相似性)和它们的系统发育关系的群落组成来确定。由于进化史可能导致更接近的物种分享形态、功能和环境特征，而不是更远的亲缘物种，纳入系统发育亲缘关系将允许更有信息量的测试，以确定群落是否代表物种的随机亚集，或者生物或非生物因素似乎在决定其组成方面具有更大的调节作用。

Ecological communities have been argued to represent either random subsets of the regional species pool, or a specific subset due to a variety of interacting effects ranging from biotic interactions (e.g. competition, predation), abiotic factors (a species intolerance to particular environmental conditions), and historical factors (e.g. colonization, evolutionary relatedness). I propose to examine fish communities in order to further our understanding of the role of these various factors. Lake and stream fish communities from within Ontario and at a continental scale will be tested to determine the relative importance of the biotic similarities due to their evolutionary similarities. I will determine the role of the abiotic environment in filtering out particular combinations of species due their differences or similarities in their habitat requirements, relative to the role of species interactions (e.g. competition) as determined through examining the composition of communities based on their morphology, their functional relationships (similarity in feeding, reproduction, behaviour), and their phylogenetic relationships. As evolutionary history likely results in more closely related species sharing morphological, functional, and environmental traits, than more distantly related species, the inclusion of phylogenetic relatedness will allow a more informative test of whether communities do represent random subsets of species or whether biotic or abiotic factors appear to have a greater regulatory role in determining their composition.