The ecology and paleoecology of shallow lakes

浅水湖是温带景观和生物生产力热点的普遍特征。尽管浅水湖无处不在，但在湖沼学中对深水湖的研究一直存在偏见。欧洲人已经认识到了这种差异，在过去的二十年里，他们提供了关于欧洲浅水湖生态和古生态的新数据。然而，鉴于淡水面临的压力越来越大，重要的是获得北美浅水湖的数据，以确定欧洲模型在多大程度上适用于这一大陆。为了解决这一需求，我启动了一个研究计划，使用空间和时间方法来解决浅水湖生态变化的模式。本提案的关键是开发新的工具来从湖泊沉积物记录中推断过去的生态变化，并应用这些工具来量化过去1000年来北美东北部温带浅水湖生态动态的轨迹、时间和大小。这项研究将收集和分析一系列古湖泊指标(即藻类色素、硅藻、枝角类、摇蚊类、花粉和大型化石)的数据，以便能够在尽可能广泛的背景下推断生态变化。然后，将把结果与其他区域公布的记录进行比较，以确定生态动态是否与全球土地利用强度和气候变化有关，或者应对措施是否更具地区性。这些知识对于模拟浅水湖对未来环境变化轨迹的反应以及为我们最宝贵的自然资源之一淡水制定有效的环境管理计划至关重要。

Shallow lakes are a pervasive feature in temperate landscapes and hotspots of biological productivity. Despite the ubiquity of shallow lakes, there has been a bias in limnology to study deep lakes. Europeans have recognized this disparity and over the past two decades, they have contributed new data about the ecology and paleoecology of shallow lakes in Europe. However, given the increasing pressures on fresh waters, it is important to obtain data for shallow lakes in North America to determine the extent to which European models will be applicable to this continent. To address this need, I have initiated a research program that uses both spatial and temporal approaches to resolve patterns of ecological change in shallow lakes. The crux of the present proposal is to develop new tools for inferring past ecological changes from lake sediment records and apply these tools to quantify the trajectories, timing and magnitude of ecological dynamics in temperate, northeastern North American shallow lakes over the past ~1000 years. This research will collect and analyze data for a spectrum of paleolimnological indicators (i.e., algal pigments, diatoms, cladocera, chironomids, pollen and macrofossils) to enable ecological changes to be inferred in the broadest context possible. The results will then be compared with published records from other regions to determine if the ecological dynamics scale with the intensity of land-use and climate variability at a global level or whether responses are more regionally defined. This knowledge is critical for modeling the response of shallow lakes to future trajectories of environmental change and for developing effective environmental stewardship plans for one of our most precious natural resources - fresh water.