The geographic scope of local interactions.

人类对自然系统的影响在许多尺度上都在发生。入侵物种的引入和气候变化的影响是两个主要的负面例子。空间格局分析提供了绘制和识别这些变化的许多重要驱动因素的手段。我将把植物和昆虫（包括传粉媒介）之间相互作用的当地测量方法与气候联系起来。为此，将在森林、山地、沙漠和草原四个主要生态系统中测量与优势植物物种的相互作用。在每个实验中，要么使用入侵物种，要么使用气候变化效应来构建所有实验。环境传感器网也将放置在所有站点，区域气候数据将从公共资源中获取。综合起来，这些相互关联的数据集将为本地相互作用过滤重大人类影响的能力提供强有力的测试。这项研究对管理者、保护生物学家和政策制定者都很重要。如果优势或基础植物物种对气候或入侵物种的反应不同，我们干扰的影响可能会被放大或在某些情况下可能被缓冲。这是预测我们的自然系统将如何应对变化所需的关键信息。它还将通过提供一套将本地相互作用与更大的地理过程耦合起来的通用协议来推进社区和空间生态学。将生物相互作用的措施与气候联系起来是非常新颖的，包括昆虫在内说明了重要的生态系统服务，如授粉。预期成果包括培养50名HQP（5名博士生和2名博士后），在顶级期刊上发表同行评议的论文，建立监测变化的分布式长期站点，以及估算几个重要生态系统的生物多样性。加拿大将直接受益于这项研究，因为人类的影响将在安大略省的森林、不列颠哥伦比亚省的山脉和安大略省南部的草原上进行测量。在应用空间和地理工具更好地了解生态学方面，我们也将发挥国际领导作用，从中受益。

Human impacts are occurring at many scales in natural systems. Introduction of invasive species and climate change effects are two mostly negative examples. Spatial pattern analysis provides the means to map and identify many important drivers of these changes. I will link local measures of interactions between plants and insects, including pollinators, to climate. To do this, interactions with dominant plant species will be measured in four major ecosystems - forests, mountains, deserts, and grasslands. In each, either invasive species or climate change effects are used to structure all experiments. Webs of environmental sensors will also be placed at all sites, and regional climate data will be derived from public sources. Taken together, these linked datasets will provide a powerful test of the capacity for local interactions to filter large human impacts. This research is important to managers, conservation biologists, and policy makers. If dominant or foundational plant species respond differently to climate or invasive species, the effects of our disturbances may be magnified or perhaps buffered in some instances. This is critical information needed to predict how our natural systems will respond to change. It will also advance community and spatial ecology by providing a general set of protocols for coupling local interactions to larger geographic processes. Linking measures of biotic interactions to climate is very novel, and including insects speaks to important ecosystem services such as pollination. Anticipated outcomes include training of 50 HQP with 5 PhD students and 2 postdocs, peer-reviewed publications in top journals, establishment of distributed long-term sites for monitoring change, and estimates of biodiversity in several important ecosystems. Canada will benefit from this research directly since human impacts will be measured in Ontario forests, mountains in BC, and grasslands in Southern Ontario. We will also benefit by demonstrating international leadership in applying spatial and geographic tools to better understanding ecology.