Structure, biodiversity and conservation of arthropod assemblages and populations

本研究探讨了维持节肢动物生活史的进化压力以及节肢动物生活史替代策略的生态学意义。它还将对半水生昆虫（水蜘蛛）、地面甲虫和蜘蛛种群的了解融入社区，并探讨由此产生的了解对生物多样性和保护的影响。这项工作主要是针对节肢动物如何在生态和进化的时间，以应对其环境的变化，特别是人为的变化，以及它们如何融入功能生态群落。它研究了对季节变化、城市化和林业实践驱动的干扰的反应，测量了节肢动物在适应冬季和洪水等周期性干扰方面的反应，以及人口和社区对野火、林业实践、城市化和气候变化驱动的更不规则干扰的反应。在有关生活史的工作中，重点是对身体大小的选择力，特别是对北方物种越冬成功的影响，以及在热带的情况下，对水蝗物种的特殊身体大小的适应性理解接近能够在水上行走的物理大小限制。北方水蝗营养生态学的新工作旨在了解摄食机制，栖息在水蝗肠道的微生物群落的发展和意义，以及北方物种生长和繁殖的饮食变化的影响。这项工作的主要应用意义涉及我们如何能够改进城市发展战略，使其对生态更加敏感，并进一步发展森林管理和森林养护做法，以符合维持自然系统生物多样性特征的可持续性标准。研究的一个中心方面是了解1）节肢动物栖息地在细尺度上的必要工作的选择力作用于生活史，和2）必须保持当地栖息地的功能，以保护人口和社区在“自然”或至少是可接受的水平，在面对人类活动。大部分工作涉及加拿大阿尔伯塔的半水生昆虫和地面及凋落物中的节肢动物，主要是甲虫和蜘蛛，并为学生提供节肢动物鉴定和基础及应用生态学研究方面的有益机会。要求提供少量资金（<2%），以支持中国和哥伦比亚的热带系统工作，分别涉及世界遗产昆虫的保护和奥里诺科河流域上游地球上最不了解的生物多样性中心之一的节肢动物研究。参加后两个项目将为加拿大学生带来国际机会。

This research explores the evolutionary pressures that maintain arthropod life histories and the ecological significance of alternative life history strategies in arthropods. It also integrates understanding of semi-aquatic bug (waterstrider), ground beetle and spider populations into communities, and explores the biodiversity and conservation implications of the resulting understanding. The work is generally aimed at how arthropods respond in both ecological and evolutionary time to changes in their environments, especially anthropogenic changes, and how they are integrated into functioning ecological communities. It examines responses to disturbances driven by seasonal changes, urbanization and forestry practices, measuring arthropod responses in terms of adaptations to deal with cyclic disturbances like winter and flooding, and population and community responses to more irregular disturbances driven by wildfire, forestry practices, urbanization and climate change. In work about life history the focus is on the selective forces acting on body size, especially with respect to effects on overwintering success in boreal species, and in a tropical situation, with adaptive understanding of exceptional body size in a waterstrider species that is close to the physical size limit of being able to walk on water. New work in nutritional ecology of boreal waterstriders seeks to understand the mechanics of feeding, the development and significance of the microbial communities inhabiting waterstrider guts, and the implications of variation in diet for growth and reproduction in boreal species. The main applied significance of the work relates to how we can improve urban development strategies to make them more ecological sensitive, and further develop forest management and forest conservation practices with respect to the sustainability criterion of maintaining biodiversity characteristic of natural systems. A central aspect of the research is understanding both 1) arthropod habitats at the fine scales essential to work out the selective forces acting on life histories, and 2) the features of local habitats that must be maintained to conserve populations and communities at ‘natural’ or, at least acceptable levels in the face of human activities. Most of the work deals with semi-aquatic bugs and ground and litter-dwelling arthropods, mainly beetles and spiders, in Alberta, Canada, and provides useful opportunities for student education in identification of arthropods and in basic and applied ecological research. A small amount of funding (<2%) is requested to support work on tropical systems in China and Colombia that deal, respectively, with conservation of a world-heritage insect, and arthropod studies in one of the Earth’s most poorly understood centres of biodiversity in the upper Orinoco basin. Participation in both of these latter projects will lead to international opportunities for Canadian students.