Structuring of aquatic ecological communities

生态群落被认为代表了区域物种库的随机子集，或者是由于各种相互作用的影响而产生的特定子集，这些影响包括生物相互作用（例如竞争，捕食），非生物因素（物种对特定环境条件的不耐受性）和历史因素（例如殖民化，进化相关性）。 我建议研究鱼类群落，以进一步了解这些不同因素的作用。 湖泊和溪流鱼类群落从安大略和大陆规模将进行测试，以确定由于其进化相似性的生物相似性的相对重要性。我将确定非生物环境的作用，在过滤出特定的物种组合，由于他们的差异或相似性，在他们的栖息地的要求，相对于物种的相互作用（如竞争）的作用，通过检查社区的组成，其形态，功能关系（在喂养，繁殖，行为的相似性），以及它们的系统发育关系。 由于进化历史可能导致更密切相关的物种共享形态，功能和环境特征，而不是更远的相关物种，包括系统发育相关性将允许一个更翔实的测试社区是否代表物种的随机子集，或者是否生物或非生物因素似乎有更大的调节作用，在确定其组成。

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.