Exploring interactions among climatic stressors and adaptive freshwater metacommunities

全球变化在生态方面的惊人之处证明，在研究多种新的和迅速的环境变化（即压力）的累积影响方面缺乏一种概念性的方法。压力源和物种之间的相互作用是这些意外事件的核心，因为它们会导致间接影响，而这些影响无法根据对单一直接影响的了解轻易预测。然而，对非生物和生物（例如，竞争、捕食）相互作用、物种扩散和对胁迫群落的适应仍然非常有限。生态位和亚生态位概念的整合为发现涉及多种压力源的生态进化动力学提供了一种工具，例如极端气候事件（例如，干旱和热浪）。在这种方法中还必须考虑到物种的功能特性，以便能够预测气候压力对生态系统功能及其服务的净影响。我的建议的前提是，探索池塘metacitivities沿沿着海拔和纬度梯度可以揭示全球变暖如何影响生物多样性和功能性能。我的年轻科学家小组的几项发现是这项研究的基础，这项研究将建立在我们的经验优势之上，以调查多种压力对水生生态系统的净影响。我们将在未来五年内实现这四个研究目标： 1.使用空间换时间的方法，构建气候变化背景下的社区响应面。 2.测试干旱，高温和物种相互作用对当地社区的间接影响。 3.测试区域物种库对气候压力当地社区的“拯救效应”。 4.测试重点物种适应气候生态位的潜力。 这项研究的成功将在很大程度上取决于我指导一个充满活力的HQP团队的能力。我的策略仍然包括频繁的互动，建设性的批评，鼓励，并在我的实验室所有成员之间共享资源。HQP接受跨学科的培训，包括古湖沼学，湖沼学，全生态系统和围隔实验，定量分类学和多变量分析。由阿尔伯塔大学和我自己的实验室提供的最先进的研究基础设施使我能够提供全面的生态和分类学培训，产生越来越多的学术，政府和私人环境机构进行对生物多样性和生态系统服务的影响的环境评估需求的技能集。虽然我在这里的重点是全球变暖的生态影响，我提出的概念方法是广泛适用于其他多种压力影响水生和陆地生态系统的研究。

The ecological surprises of global change attest to the lack of a conceptual approach to the study of cumulative impacts by multiple novel and rapid environmental changes (i.e. stressors). Interactions among stressors and species are at the core of these unexpected events as they result in indirect effects that cannot be easily predicted based on knowledge of single direct effects. However, mechanistic understanding of the mediating effects of abiotic and biotic (e.g., competition, predation) interactions, species dispersal, and adaptation on stressed communities remains very limited. Integration of the evolving niche and metacommunity concepts provides a tool for discovering eco-evolutionary dynamics involving multiple stressors, such as extreme climatic events (e.g., drought and heat waves). Functional species traits must also be considered in such an approach to enable forecasting of the net impacts of climatic stressors on ecosystem function and their services. The premise of my proposal is that exploring pond metacommunities along altitudinal and latitudinal gradients can reveal how global warming affects biodiversity and functional performance. Several discoveries by my group of young scientists are the basis for this proposed research, which will build on our empirical strength to investigate the net effects of multiple stressors on aquatic ecosystems. We will address these four research objectives over the next five years: 1. Using a space-for-time approach, construct community response surfaces in the context of climate change. 2. Test for indirect effects of drought, higher temperature, and species interactions on local communities. 3. Test for "rescue effects" by regional species pools on climatically stressed local communities. 4. Test the potential for climatic niche adaptation in focal species. Success of the proposed research will depend highly on my ability to mentor a dynamic HQP team. My strategy continues to consist of frequent interaction, constructive criticism, encouragement, and sharing of resources among all members of my lab. HQP receive training across a high diversity of disciplines, including paleolimnology, limnology, whole-ecosystem and mesocosm experiments, quantitative taxonomy, and multivariate analyses. The state-of-the-art research infrastructure provided by the University of Alberta and also my own lab enables me to provide comprehensive ecological and taxonomic training, generating skill sets that are increasingly in demand by academic, governmental, and private environmental agencies conducting environmental assessments of impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Though my focus is here on the ecological impacts of global warming, my proposed conceptual approach is broadly applicable to the study of other multiple stressors affecting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.