Terrestrial inputs to aquatic ecosystems: effects on food webs and carbon cycling

我的研究项目旨在了解跨栖息地的连接如何影响湖泊中的食物网和生态系统碳循环。湖泊从其流域接收大量的陆地有机物输入。这些输入被水生生物消耗，有助于为鱼类和无脊椎动物的生产提供燃料，并使许多湖泊成为大气的净碳源。持续的环境变化预计将改变陆地输入湖泊，但这些变化对食物网，鱼类种群和碳循环的影响尚不清楚。在今后五年里，我将集中精力实现两个主要目标，以解决这些未知问题。首先，我将使用一个全湖实验，跨湖比较研究和食物网模型，以确定是否以及何时陆地投入用于补贴或减少生产的鱼类和其他消费者在湖泊食物网。第二，我将开发一个改进的陆地-湖泊-大气碳循环模型，并将此模型应用于了解温带和北方湖泊的碳通量。总的来说，这些研究将测试生态补贴理论的关键预测，阐明支持湖泊鱼类种群的资源，并完善我们对湖泊在加拿大等湖泊丰富景观的区域碳循环中的作用的理解。

My research program seeks to understand how cross-habitat connections influence food webs and ecosystem carbon cycles in lakes. Lakes receive substantial inputs of terrestrial organic matter from their watersheds. These inputs are consumed by aquatic organisms, helping to fuel production of fishes and invertebrates, and driving many lakes to be net sources of carbon to the atmosphere. Ongoing environmental changes are expected to alter terrestrial inputs to lakes, but the implications of these changes for food webs, fish populations, and carbon cycling are unclear. Over the next five years I will focus on two primary objectives to address those unknowns. First, I will use a whole-lake experiment, cross-lake comparative studies, and food web models to determine whether and when terrestrial inputs serve to subsidize or subtract from production of fishes and other consumers in lake food webs. Second, I will develop an improved model of land-lake-atmosphere carbon cycling, and apply this model to understanding carbon fluxes in temperate and boreal lakes. Collectively, these studies will test key predictions of ecological subsidy theory, elucidate the resources that support fish populations in lakes, and refine our understanding of the role of lakes in regional carbon cycles in lake-rich landscapes such as Canada.