Biodiversity research at the Redpath Museum: field vehicle.

生物多样性为加拿大人提供了无数当前和潜在的未来利益。因此，了解生物多样性的起源、分布和维持是了解这些好处以及如何为未来最好地保护它们的关键。出于这些原因，了解生物多样性丧失的原因，包括气候变化和入侵物种及其对生态系统的影响也至关重要。生物多样性是自然环境的一种属性，因此必须通过广泛的实地工作进行研究-这项工作需要能够携带设备和人员进行短期或长期旅行的车辆。这里要求的实地车辆将为麦吉尔大学雷德帕斯博物馆的研究人员发挥这一作用。研究将沿着沿着几条主线进行。亨德利教授将研究三棘鱼对不同环境的适应如何改变生态过程，如种群规模和水生群落结构。Ricciardi教授将研究圣劳伦斯河中的入侵物种如何取代本地物种-以及这些相互作用如何取决于物理条件，如水化学。拉尔森教授将通过对上一次生物多样性剧变的古生物学研究来研究生物多样性过去的变化：6500万年前，白垩纪末期的大规模灭绝杀死了地球上近一半的生命。米莲教授将研究魁北克的气候变化将如何影响小型哺乳动物的分布及其进化反应。绿色教授将研究分布和生物多样性的维护，通过集中在两栖动物物种范围的动态。

Biodiversity provides innumerable current and potential future benefits to Canadians. Understanding the origins, distribution, and maintenance of biodiversity is therefore key to understanding those benefits and how best to preserve them for the future. For these reasons, it is also critical to understand the causes of biodiversity loss, including climate change and invasive species, and its consequences for ecosystems. Biodiversity is a property of the natural environment and so must be studied through extensive field work - and this work requires vehicles capable of carrying equipment and personnel on short-to-long excursions. The field vehicle requested here will perform this role for researchers in the Redpath Museum of McGill University. Research will be conducted along several major lines. Professor Hendry will examine how adaptation of threespine stickleback fish to different environments alters ecological processes, such as population sizes and the structure of aquatic communities. Professor Ricciardi will examine how invasive species in the St. Lawrence River have replaced native species - and how these interactions depend on physical conditions, such as water chemistry. Professor Larsson will study past changes in biodiversity through paleontological studies of the last great biodiversity upheaval: the end-Cretaceous mass extinction that killed off nearly half of all life on the planet 65 million years ago. Professor Millien will study how climate change in Quebec will influence the distribution of small mammals and their evolutionary responses. Professor Green will study the distribution and maintenance of biological diversity by focussing on the dynamics of species ranges in amphibians.