Ecology of temperate canopy arachnids

森林对加拿大人来说是宝贵的，保护其生物多样性是全球的一个关键优先事项。 要做到这一点，我们必须首先记录生活在我们森林中的物种，从地面到树冠。只有这样，我们才能理解森林提供的生态过程和生态系统服务。我的研究重点是森林树冠蜘蛛（蜘蛛和螨）的生态学，我的计划的总体目标是了解蜘蛛多样性背后的机制在西南魁北克的山毛榉-枫树林的树梢。我将从记录多样性的模式开始，看看这些模式是如何与空间尺度相关的，并测试在树梢上是否有独特的物种。 这将有助于评估来自一个森林的蛛形纲动物与来自另一个森林的蛛形纲动物之间的联系。我还将集中精力了解蜘蛛和螨群的传播联系，并测量这些八条腿的动物在森林树冠中移动的方式。 另一个值得研究的关键生态过程是捕食，因为许多鸟类以生活在树冠上的昆虫和蜘蛛为食，而蜘蛛则以许多植物为食的昆虫为食。 因此，我将测试捕食事件是否支配蜘蛛和螨的聚集。 这项研究的货币是物种，我的工作的最后一部分的目标是培训分类学家和描述发生在研究森林中的未知物种，初步工作表明，有新的科学物种生活在西南魁北克的森林树冠。

Forests are precious to Canadians, and preserving their biodiversity is a key global priority. To do this we must first document the species living in our forests, from the ground to the canopy. Only then can we understand the ecological process and ecosystem services provided by forests. My research focuses on the ecology of forest canopy arachnids (spiders and mites), and the overall goal of my program is to understand the mechanisms behind arachnid diversity in the treetops of beech-maple forests in SW Quebec. I will start by documenting patterns of diversity and see how these patterns are related to spatial scale, and to test if there are unique species found in treetops. This will help to assess the way in which the arachnids from one forest may be connected to those from of a different forest. I will also focus efforts on understanding how dispersal links communities of spiders and mites and measure the ways these eight-legged animals move around in forest canopies. Another key ecological process worth investigation is predation, since many birds feed upon insects and spiders living in the canopy, and spiders eat many plant-feeding insects. I will therefore test if predation events govern assemblages of spiders and mites. The currency of this research is species, and goal of the final section of my work is to train taxonomists and to describe unknown species occurring in the study forests, and preliminary work suggests there are species new to science living in forest canopies in SW Quebec.